Saturday, January 10, 2009

1930s what happened

By the 1930s money was scarce because of the depression, so people did what they could to make their lives happy. Movies were hot, parlor games and board games were popular. People gathered around radios to listen to the Yankees. Young people danced to the big bands. Franklin Roosevelt

FACTS about this decade. Population: 123,188,000 in 48 states Life Expectancy: Male, 58.1; Female, 61.6 Average salary: $1,368 Unemployment rises to 25% Huey Long propses a guaranteed annual income of $2,500 Car Sales: 2,787,400 Food Prices: Milk, 14 cents a qt.; Bread, 9 cents a loaf; Round Steak, 42 cents a pound Lynchings: 21influenced Americans with his Fireside Chats. The golden age of the mystery novel continued as people escaped into books, reading writers like Agatha Christie, Dashielle Hammett, and Raymond Chandler. Historic EventsIn the Great Depression the American dream had become a nightmare. What was once the land of opportunity was now the land of desperation. What was once the land of hope and optimism had become the land of despair.The American people were questioning all the maxims on which they had based their lives - democracy, capitalism, individualism. The best hope for a better life was California. Many Dust Bowl farmers packed their families into cars, tied their few possessions on the back, and sought work in the agricultural fields or cities of the West - their role as independent land owners gone forever. Between 1929 and 1932 the income of the average American family was reduced by 40%, from $2,300 to $1,500. Instead of advancement, survival became the keyword. Institutions, attitudes, lifestyles changed in this decade but democracy prevailed. Democracies such as Germany and Italy fell to dictatorships, but the United States and its constitution survived.Economics dominated politics in the 1930's. The decade began with shanty towns called Hoovervilles, named after a president who felt that relief should be left to the private sector, and ended with an alphabet soup of federal programs funded by the national government and an assortment of commissions set up to regulate Wall Street, the banking industry, and other business enterprises. The Social Security Act of 1935 set up a program to ensure an income for the elderly. The Wagner Act of 1935 gave workers the legal right to unionize. John L. Lewis founded the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) and conditions for blue-collar workers improved. Joseph P. Kennedy, a Wall Street insider, was appointed Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commissions.By the beginning of the next decade the United States had gone from a laissez-faire economy that oversaw its own conduct to an economy regulated by the federal government. The debate over which is the best course of action still rages today. The Presidents of the 1930s were Herbert Hoover and Franklin Delano RooseveltThe teenagers riding the rails during the Great Depression accounted for 1/16 (250,000) of a jobless army that numbered four million. These itinerants crisscrossed the U.S. on the Pennsylvania, Atchison, Great Northern, Union Pacific, and Southern Pacific railroads, as well as other vast rail networks. In 1932, Southern Pacific agents ejected 683,457 trespassers from the company's trains. The price of trespassing on the rails was high: The Interstate Commerce Commission recorded 5,962 trespassers killed and injured in the first 10 months of 1932.The arts, like everything else in the 30's, were dominated by the Great Depression. In the 1930's this discipline was supported by government programs such as the Public Works of Art Project and later the Federal Art Project. The artists employed by these projects (over 5,000 at one period of time) chose themes based on American culture and history. The sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, was able to complete his Mount Rushmore Memorial with funds supplied by the WPA. Other "starving artists" were able to survive the hard times by painting murals on the lobby walls of government buildings. There were some of these individuals who became artists of note, such as Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning.This decade saw the beginning of the American regionalist style with Grant Wood's famous work, "American Gothic". Artists that adopted this style include John Steuart Curry, Thomas Hart Benton, Georgia O'Keeffe with her southwestern themes, and Edward Hopper with his realistic scenes from city life.Many of the nation's most memorable skyscrapers (the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, and Rockefeller Center) were completed in the early 30's. In 1937 the Frank Lloyd Wright masterpiece of home design, "Falling Water", was built. In 1932 the word "mobile" was coined to describe the kenetic sculpture created by Alexander Calder. In 1935 Andrew Mellon gave his $25 million dollar art collection to the American people and contributed $10 million to the construction of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. The 1930's were a perilous time for public education. With cash money in short supply parents were unable to provide their children with the necessary clothes, supplies, and textbooks (which were not furnished in some states) to attend school. Taxes, especially in rural areas, went unpaid. With the loss of revenue, school boards were forced to try numerous strategies to keep their districts operating. School terms were shortened. Teachers' salaries were cut. One new teacher was paid $40 a month for a five month school year - and was very glad for the job! When a rural county in Arkansas was forced to charge tuition one year in order to keep the schools open, some children were forced to drop out for that year. One farmer was able to barter wood to fuel the classrooms' potbellied stoves for his four children's tuition, thus enabling them to continue their education. The famous Dick and Jane books that taught millions of children to read were first published in 1931. These primers introduced the students to reading with only one new word per page and a limited vocabulary per book. All who learned to read with these books still recall the "Look. See Dick. See Dick run." With the reduction of spendable income, people had to look to inexpensive leisure pursuits. President Roosevelt helped make stamp collecting a popular hobby. Parlor games and board games became the rage. In 1935 Parker Brothers introduced the game of Monopoly and 20 thousand sets were sold in one week. Gambling increased as people sought any means to add to their income. Between 1930 and 1939 horse racing became legal in 15 more states bringing the total to 21. Interest in spectator sports such as baseball grew. Stars like Lou Gehrig and Joe DiMaggio drew fans into the stadium, and those who could not attend the games gathered around their radios to listen to the play-by-play. The separate Negro League was in its golden years. The 1932 Winter Olympics, held at Lake Placid, New York, renewed interest in winter sports. The Civilian Conservation Corps, a New Deal work project for youths, built ski runs and jumps on public land as well as recreational facilities in the national parks.Paris fashions became too expensive for all but the very rich, and American designers came into their own. Hollywood movie stars such as Bette Davis and Greta Garbo set fashion trends in dresses designed by Adrian and Muriel King and hats designed by Lily Dache. Clothes had to last a long time so styles did not change every season. The simple print dress with a waist line and longer hem length replaced the flapper attire of the 1920's. The use of the zipper became wide spread for the first time because it was less expensive than the buttons and closures previously used. Another innovation of the 30's was different hem lengths for different times of the day - mid calf for day wear, long for the evening. Men's pants were wide and high waisted. Vest sweaters were an alternative to the traditional matching vest of the three piece suit. Hats were mandatory for the well dressed male. Many of America's most distinguished writers produced works of fiction during the thirties. The list includes such names as F. Scott Fitzgerald,Ernest Hemingway, John Dos Passos, and Thornton Wilder. Some of the novels of this period explored what was happening in the country during the Great Depression. John Steinbeck'sThe Grapes of Wrath chronicled the life of a displaced Oklahoma family who had lost its farm to the drought of the Dust Bowl. James T. Farrell wrote a trilogy of novels about an Irish-American named Studs Lonigan and his attempt to rise above his poor beginnings. Richard Wrighttook on the issue of racial prejudice and the plight of blacks in Native Son. Erskine Caldwell's novel Tobacco Road described the life of poor whites in the rural South. All four of these works were cited on the recent Modern Library list of the top 100 novels, in English, of the 20th century.There were notable works in other forms of literature. The poet Carl Sandburg published his poem "The People, Yes" in 1936. Ogden Nash wrote light verse for the New Yorker magazine. Dr. Seuss delighted children with his rhyming books for youngsters learning to read. Wallace Stevens' collection of poetry, The Man With the Blue Guitar was published in 1937. The public speaking instructor, Dale Carnegie, in 1936 penned the book whose title How to Win Friends and Influence People was to become a part of the language. "It Don't Mean a Thing (if it Ain't Got That Swing)". The title of this Duke Ellington song sums up the "in" music of the thirties. There were popular songs such as "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime" that spoke to the hardships of the time, but the young people flocked to hear and dance to the big bands of Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Glenn Miller, and Tommy Dorsey. In this same era Broadway produced some of the most famous and lasting American musicals. George and Ira Gershwin wrote the hits Strike Up the Band, Girl Crazy, and Of Thee I Sing. Cole Porter produced such works as Anything Goes, Jubilee, and Red Hot and Blue. Songwriters and lyricists like Irving Berlin, Johnny Mercer, and Richard Rodgers composed melodies still being played and sung today.The Federal Music Project (FMP) supported the musical arts and sponsored performances of both classical and popular compositions. The FMP emphasized American music and promoted the works of Aaron Copland, Roy Harris and Virgil Thomson. In 1936 the Department of the Interior hired Woody Guthrie to travel throughout the Northwest and perform his folk songs. During this tour he wrote twenty-six songs in twenty-six days. By 1938 Guthrie was making appearances in support of labor unions and wrote such songs as "I Ain't Got No Home", inspired by visits to migrant labor camps..It was in 1935 that George Gershwin's American folk opera Porgy and Bess was first performed. In 1931 Congress designated "The Star Spangled Banner" as the national anthem. In 1938 Kate Smith sang Irving Berlin's "God Bless America" and made the song her own. There have been many proponents of making this the national anthem, replacing the hard to sing "Star Spangled Banner". In the same year a young Mary Martin captivated theatergoers with her rendition of "My Heart Belongs to Daddy" in Cole Porter's Leave It to Me. Radio reached its zenith of popularity in this decade.By 1939 about 80 percent of the population owned radio sets. Americans loved to laugh at the antics of such comedians as Jack Benny, Fred Allen,George Burns and Gracie Allen,Amos and Andy, and Fibber McGee and Molly. The soap opera dominated the daytime airwaves.Our Gal Sunday began each episode with the question, "Can a girl from a little mining town in the west find happiness as the wife of a wealthy and titled Englishman?' Many a woman's ear was glued to her radio every day in hopes of learning the answer. The heroics of the Lone Ranger, the Green Hornet, the Shadow, and Jack Armstrong, all-american boy, thrilled listeners both young and old and sold countless boxes of cereal. News broadcasts by commentators like H. V. Kaltenborn and Edward R. Murrow kept the public aware of the increasing crisis in Europe. Franklin Roosevelt used the medium in his "Fireside Chats" (listen)to influence public opinion. One of the most dramatic moments in radio history occurred on May 6, 1937, when the German airship Hindenburg burst into flames as it was about to land in Lakehurst, New Jersey. The horror of the incident was conveyed live by the reporter Herb Morrison. His reaction to what was happening in front of him still enthralls today. On October 30, 1938, a twenty-three-year-old Orson Welles broadcast on his Mercury Theater of the Air the H.G. Wells storyWar of the Worlds. Despite the disclaimer at the end of the program, the tale of a Martian invasion of Earth panicked a million listeners who mistook the play for a newscast. Such was the influence of radio in this its golden age.The New York's World Fair of 1939 - true to its theme of "The World of Tomorrow" - gave its estimated 25.8 million visitors a glimpse of the future. The fairgoers marveled at the flickering images of a TV set at the RCA Building and were amazed at the General Motors exhibit of a seven-lane cross-country highway system. Many of the innovations demonstrated did not become a part of every day life until after World War II, but there was a peek at the technology to come. Medical advances in the thirties included a new and safer way to do blood transfusions. An advance that was to save many a soldier's life in the upcoming war. In 1937 Chicago's Cook County Hospital opened the first blood bankthat stored blood given by live donors. This, with improved anesthesia, made the chances of surviving major surgery on vital organs much greater.Pure scientific research suffered from the lack of funding. Nevertheless, in physics ground breaking experiments in atom smashingwere being conducted at such institutions as Columbia University and the California Institute of Technology. Albert Einstein immigrated to the United States in 1933 and became a professor at the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton University. From here in 1939 he wrote his famous letter to President Rooseveltrecommending the development of the atomic bomb. In the field of astronomy the ninth major planet, Pluto, was discovered in 1930.Industrial research led to better refrigeration for foods, a variety of products made from synthetic materials such as plexiglass, nylon, and cellophane, and improved manufacturing techniques such as polymerization, which increased production of gasoline by nine million gallons a year. In 1938 American physicist Chester F. Carlson made the first copy by an electrostatic process called xerography.THEATER AND FILMThe theater flourished in this fourth decade of the twentieth century. In addition to musicals, Broadway marques lit up with play titles like Green Pastures byMarc Connelly, The Man Who Came to Dinner by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, The Children's Hour by Lillian Hellman,Winterset by Maxwell Anderson,Abe Lincoln in Illinois by Robert Sherwood, and Waiting for Lefty by Clifford Odets. In 1936 the foremost American dramatist Eugene O'Neill won the Nobel prize for literature for such works as Anna Christie andMourning Becomes Electra. Hollywood turned out movie after movie to entertain its Depression audience and the 30's are often referred to as Hollywood's "Golden Age". Movie goers wanted mainly escapist fare that let them forget their everyday troubles for a few hours. They swooned over such matinee idols as Clark Gable, Bette Davis, Greta Garbo, and Errol Flynn. They laughed at the likes of W. C. Fields, Bob Hope, and the Marx Brothers. America fell in love with the little curly headed moppet Shirley Templeand flocked to see her tap dance and sing to the song "The Good Ship Lollipop". Busby Berkeley's elaborate dance numbers delighted many a fan. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers tapping and ballroom dancing across the screen enthralled the audience. Notable writers like William Faulkner and F. Scott Fitzgerald penned screenplays. Not all movies were fantasy and lightness. The picture version of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath brought to film the story of the Joab family and its migration from the Dust Bowl of Oklahoma to the agricultural fields of California. One of the top money makers of all time Gone With the Wind debuted in Atlanta, Georgia in 1939. Walt Disney produced the first full-length animated movieSnow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937.LINKS: The WPA Federal Theater ProjectClassic MoviesBOOKSREF PN2189.L85 1983Twentieth Century TheatreA theater buff's bible. This book lists and describes by year premiers, productions, revivals, events, births/death/debuts in both America and Great Britain.REF PN1993.5.U6H55The Transformation of CinemaVolumes 1 and 2 are needed to cover this decade. A great source for information about early cinema. Photographs.REF ML390.S983 1986Show Tunes: 1905-1985Arranged by composer.

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what about the 80s

Lone Star College - KingwoodAmerican Cultural History1980 - 19891900191019201930194019501960197019801990FACTS about this decade. Population: 226,546,000 Unemployed in 1980: National Debt: 1980 - $914,000,000,000 National Debt: 1986 - $2,000,000,000,000 Average salary: $15,757 Life Expectancy: Male 69.9 Female 77.6 Minimum Wage: $3.10 BMW was $12,000; Mercedes 280 E was $14,800 Attendance: Movies 20 million/week Daily 100 - Interactive quotes from the 80sThe 1980s became the Me! Me! Me! generation of status seekers. During the 1980s, hostile takeovers, leveraged buyouts, and mega-mergers spawned a new breed of billionaire. Donald Trump, Leona Helmsley, and Ivan Boesky iconed the meteoric rise and fall of the rich and famous. If you've got it, flaunt it and You can have it all! were watchwords. Forbes' list of 400 richest people became more important than its 500 largest companies. Binge buying and credit became a way of life and 'Shop Til you Drop' was the watchword. Labels were everything, even (or especially) for our children. Tom Wolfe dubbed the baby-boomers as the 'splurge generation.' Video games, aerobics, minivans, camcorders, and talk shows became part of our lives. The decade began with double-digit inflation, Reagan declared a war on drugs, Kermit didn't find it easy to be green, hospital costs rose, we lost many, many of our finest talents to AIDS which before the decade ended spread to black and Hispanic women, and unemployment rose. On the bright side, the US Constitution had its 200th birthday, Gone with the Wind turned 50, ET phoned home, and in 1989 Americans gave $115,000,000,000 to charity. And, Internationally, at the very end of the decade the Berlin Wall was removed - making great changes for the decade to come! At the turn of the decade, many were happy to leave the spendthrift 80s for the 90s, although some thought the eighties TOTALLY AWESOME. The purpose of this web and library guide is to help the user gain a broad understanding and appreciation for the culture and history of the 1980s. In a very small way, this is a bibliographic essay. While there is no way we can link to everything, we have attempted to find areas of special interest and to select information that we hold dear today - movies we still watch, songs we sing, food, events that move us, people we admire.To see the whole picture, we encourage users to browse all the way through this page and then visit the suggested links for more information on the decade. We believe the best way to immerse oneself in a topic is to use both Internet and the library. Maybe the most valuable information is best read in books, or viewed on video, or heard on audio cassettes. More photographs, more information, more depth. But then, there is information that will be found only on the Internet; a journal, a diary, or photographs like those on our pages. We invite you to write. It is hard to get a perspective at this early date for the eighties. Historians in future decades can judge. For now, I have mostly listed! Thanks for the many, many visits and letters we have already received. Writing these decade pages has been an enjoyable experience for us. !Have a good time! EVENTS AND TECHNOLOGYPRESIDENTS1981 Ronald Reagan1984 Ronald Reagan1989 George BushScience and technology made terrific strides in the eighties. Large numbers of Americans began using personal computers in their homes, offices, and schools. Columbia, America's first reusable spacecraft was launched in 1981. A sad day in our history was January 28, 1986, when space shuttle Challenger exploded 74 seconds after liftoff at Cape Canavaral, Florida killing all seven astronauts, including school teacher Christa McAuliffe. Research money allowed for studies and new treatments for heart, cancer, and other diseases. Major advances in genetics research led to the 1988 funding of the Human Genome Project. This project will locate the estimated 80,000 genes contained in human DNA. (Try the Timeline)During this decade Wayne Williams was arrested in Atlanta for the murders of 23 black children, Sandra Day O'Connor became the first woman Supreme Court Justice, 52 hostages were released from their 444 days of captivity in Iran, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial inscribed with 57,939 names of American soldiers killed or missing in Vietnam was dedicated, income climbed more than 20 percent, Ivan Boesky of Drexel Burnham Lambert made headlines with insider trading scandals, Geraldine Ferraro was the first woman presidential candidate, Jesse Jackson was the first black candidate, the stock market tripled in 7 years yet survived the 1987 crash, and televangelist Jim Bakker was sentenced to 45 years for selling bogus lifetime vacations. The sexual revolution encountered a major adversary when Rock Hudson died of AIDS in 1985. Prisons overflowed and violent crime rates which, in 1980, had tripled since 1960, continued to climb with the appearance of crack in 1985. From 1985 to 1990 the use of cocain addiction was up 35 percent, though the number of users had declined. Nancy Reagan'sJust Say No campaign had great influence. Toward the end of the decade, President Bush called for a kinder, gentler nation and volunteerism and contributions reached an all time high.Families changed drastically during these years. The 80s continued the trends of the 60s and 70s - more divorces, more unmarrieds living together, more single parent families. The two-earner family was even more common than in previous decades, more women earned college and advanced degrees, married, and had fewer children. Important Historic and Cultural EventsMedicare - authored by Senator Ted Kennedy 1980Toxic shock syndrome caused by Tampons LINKSHistorical Atlas of the 20th Century Collection of maps and stats of the 20th century.Early Information and Technology Pictures and essays from the National Museum of American HistoryAmerican History 1860-present Chronological arrangement of history of this century.Biography Index Biography of over 15,000 famous persons.Genealogy Guide Helpful guide for locating past people, places and events.This Day in Life Magazine Brief look at "this day" in history - Life Magazine.Time Magazine's "Men of the Year" Influential personsThe Computer Museum, 1945-1990 includes timeline of important developments. ChuckyG's Politics Contains essays and articles, lists, and links BOOKS REF E18.5.U75 Timetables of American History Include history and politics, the arts, science and technology, and other info of interest.REF E174.D52 Dictionary of American HistoryFrom very brief to multi-page signed entries on topics in American History.REF E169.1A471872 America in the 20th Century 1970-1979 is covered in volume 8. Typical of Marshall Cavendish, this encyclopedic set is accessible and gives easy to use background information for this decade. Covers from art to transportation.REF E173.A793The Annals of America Volume 21 covers the early part of this decade. Set contains essays and excepts from important writers and on important topics of the time. Most valuable for this research.REF N7593,C93 Dictionary of American Portraits Photographs or drawings of important Americans. Brief description of their contribution. Arranged by person.ART & ARCHITECTURE:Eighties was a huge decade for art, art museums, and artists. Artists included mostly moderns i.e, Jasper Johns, Willem De Kooning, Keith Haring,Roy Lichtenstein, Marisol, Robert Rauschenberg, and Frank Stella. Andy Warhol did a few ads. Artists were trying new arenas and pushing the envelop. During the decade, huge numbers of people protested the Mapplethorpe exhibit at the Corcoran then at the Wadsworth Atheneum. Veterans protested a Chicago Art Institute exhibit that had the flag draped on the floor, Richard Serra's Tilted Arc was removed from NYC's Federal plaza, and Andrew Wyeth's Helga pictures were refused by some museums but in 1987, the Helga paintings were exhibited at the National Gallery of Art, the gallery's first exhibition of works by a living artist. Auctions of famous art works brought record prices. Early in the decade Picasso's 'Yo' brought 5.4 million. By 1987, Van Gogh's 'Sunflowers' brought $39.9 million while 'Irises" brought $53.9 million dollars! The Museum of Modern Art reopened twice as large as previously, Joseph Hirshhorn left his works to the Hirshhorn Museum (Smithsonian), places like San Antonio built multi-million dollar museums. In March, 1990, in a nighttime art theft at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, thieves made off with 12 works of art, including paintings by Degas, Rembrandt, Renoir, and Vermeer, valued at $100,000,000 (now estimated $300,000,000 - 2008). Never recovered.A few famous architectural feats of the 80s were the Menil Collection in Houston by Renzo Piano (wow), Trump Tower, High Museum in Atlanta, Union Station in Washington, and Sunshine Skyway Bridge in St. Petersberg. I.M. Pei, Philip Johnson, and Richard Meier were among the most renowned architects of the period.ART AND ARCHITECTURE LINKSLinks to Later 20th Century ArtArt on the Web - from Boston CollegeAmerican Architecture - Twentieth Century - 1980 to 1989Digital Archive of American ArchitectureArt Subject GuideGreat Buildings OnlineArt Glossary from AskArt - The American Artists Bluebook BOOKSN 6490 .L792 Visual Arts in the Twentieth Century History of art in the 20th Century which includes all art forms and architecture. Set up chronologically by decade.REF N 6512 .A578 American Artists: Illustrated Survey of Leading Contemporary Americans Reviews and biographical data on more than 1,000 living American artists.N 6537 .C48 A2 Beyond the Flower: the Autobiography of a Feminist Artist Autobiography of Judy ChicagoREF NA 712 .L4 20th Century American Architure Photographs and discussions of 200 key buildings.NA 737 .K32 B73 Kimbell Art Museum Architecture in detail, an examination of the building with photos, drawings and discussion.BOOKS & LITERATUREAmerican was reading. Popular fiction authors included espionage writersKen Follett, Robert Ludlum, Frederick Forsyth, Martin Cruz Smith,Tom Clancy, and John le Carre. Scott Turow turned the legal thriller around and paved the way for the mega legal thrillers of the 90s, when he wrote Presumed Innocent. Of 13 books which sold over one million copies, Stephen King, Tom Clancy, and Danielle Steele wrote 10 of them. Tom Wolfe, Toni Morrison, Larry McMurtry, James Michener, John Irving, and Alice Walker were among the popular writers of the decade. Non fiction books became best-sellers. All I Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, (Robert Fulgham), The Beverly Hills Diet (Judy Mazel), Richard Simmons' Never Say Diet Book, and Miss Piggy's Guide to Life helped us get in touch with our inner and outer selves :-) Trump: Surviving at the Top and Iacocca: an Autobiography hit the bestseller lists. Two of my favorite contemporary poets wrote during this decade: 1. Don't worry, spiders, I keep house casually.

2. Don't kill that fly! Look- it's wringing its hands, wringing its feet.To the left, haiku by Issa, 17th century poet Translated by Robert Haas.Or the beginning of 'Song' by Haas....3.Afternoon cooking in the fall sun who is more naked than the man yelling,"Hey, I'm home!" to an empty house?

REF Z1003.2.C66 American Literacy 4-6 page essays on 50 books that define the American culture.REF Z1219.C96 1905 (annual) Book Review Digest Indexes and abstracts book reviews. Use it to find books written during the period and their reviewsChildren's Book Award winners of the eighties:Newbery Award Winner - Began in 1922 (most distinguished children's book of the previous year)1980: A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl's Journal, 1830-1832 by Joan W. Blos1981: Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson1982: A Visit to William Blake's Inn: Poems for Innocent and Experienced Travelers by Nancy Willard 1983: Dicey's Song by Cynthia Voigt1984: Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary1985: The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley1986: Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan1987: The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman1988: Lincoln: A Photobiography by Russell Freedman 1989: Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices by Paul Fleischman Caldecott Award Winner - Began in 1938 (most distinguished children's picture book of the previous year) 1980: Ox-Cart Man, illustrated by Barbara Cooney; text: Donald Hall1981: Fables by Arnold Lobel 1982: Jumanji by Chris Van Allsburg1983: Shadow, translated and illustrated by Marcia Brown; original text in French: Blaise Cendrars1984: The Glorious Flight: Across the Channel with Louis Bleriot by Alice & Martin Provensen1985: Saint George and the Dragon, illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman; text: retold by Margaret Hodges1986: The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg1987: Hey, Al, illustrated by Richard Egielski; text: Arthur Yorinks1988: Owl Moon, illustrated by John Schoenherr; text: Jane Yolen 1989: Song and Dance Man, illustrated by Stephen Gammell; text: Karen Ackerman EDUCATION A 1980 study by UCLA and American Council on Education indicated that college freshmen were more interested in status, power, and money than at any time during the past 15 years. Business Management was the most popular major.American education came under fire during the 1980s. Liberals cried out against budget cuts and rising student costs. School districts offered teachers exams and exit exams became a part of graduating for Education majors. Conservatives like E.D.Hirsch, Jr. and William Bennett advocated a return to the classics for college students and back to the basic skills for public school students. An attempt was made to improve the teacher quality by raising salaries slightly. Efforts to censor books tripled in the eighties. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn , The Grapes of Wrath, and Catcher in the Rye were among books banned in New York State. Roget's Thesaurus banned sexist categories: mankind becamehumankind; countryman became country dweller. Columbia University, the last all male Ivy League school, began accepting women in 1983. President Reagan endorsed a constitutional amendment to permit school prayer. It was defeated. LINKSBlackwell Museum Blackwell History of Education websiteHistory of American Education Web ProjectERIC document - Higher Education in the Eighties Abstract, order full article from your local library BooksREF E173.A793 Annals of America Vol. 19, p. 120-124 includes two entries - one on forced busing to achieve educational integration, and the other "Survival of the Catholic Urban School."REF E174.D52 Dictionary of American History Vol. 2, This multi-volume set has a very good entry under "Education". LA11.L8 1972 Our Western Educational Heritage The final long chapter contains history of American educational system.FADS, FASHION, & LIFESTYLESTeam sports for kids were really popular beginning in the seventies and going through the present. Eighties' mothers ran carpool after work, kids had after school and week end cheerleading, baseball, football, soccer, gym, dance, jazz, you name it!Nerd's became a hot commodity in the 1980s. Wealthy and brainy computer wizards like Stephen Wozniak helped. So did movies like Revenge of the Nerds, Lucas, Stand by Me, and Peggy Sue Got Married. TV joined the nerd ranks with ABC's hit series Head of the Class. Food of the 80s included the popular fast food places like Taco Bell and McDonald's McDLT and McRib. Kids loved Sweetarts, Skittles, Nerds, Runts, Hubba Bubba Chewing Gum, and Five Alive.Collectibles were big in the 80s. Smurf and E.T. paraphernalia, Cabbage Patch dolls, camcorders, video games (Nintendo, Pac Man, Game Boy), Rubik's Cube, Teenage Mutant Nija Turtles, and Barbies (now Hispanic, Black, Asian) were big. New were discount air fares, lite foods, aerobics, minivans, talkshows, and Valley Girls (grody to the max).The combination of Nancy Reagan's elegance and Princess Di's love of fashion, stimulated a return to opulent clothing styles. Power dressing was in. Madonna was a big influence on young fashion. Anne Klein, Perry Ellis, Donna Karan, and Calvin Klein were designers for the 80s. Film continued to influence and inspire clothing. The Flashdance look had young and old in tank tops, tight-fitting pants or torn jeans, and leg-warmers. Teens not wearing designer clothes opted for Michael Jackson's glove or Madona's fishnet stockings, leather, and chains. Older women wore the Out of Africa look popularized by Meryl Streep. Image won over reality and tanning salons thrived. Sneakers were so popular (and necessary) and the price so high that the Los Angeles Police Department accused shoe companies of cashing in on the easy drug money picked up by inner city kids. The shoe companies, like Nike, claimed the cost of high technologies needed to create the shoes was responsible for the huge jump in price. Kids like to do their own thing - see hairdos in pictures as evidence!During the eighties, Americans continued to travel around their own country - using every mode of transportation. Trips to Colorado for a mountain vacation were popular in summer as well as winter. Traveling was often in RVs.

LINKS:Costumer's Manifesto Links to world wide of fashion . Good oneswww.80s.com Great variety on this 80s serverThe Bad Fads Museum Fashion, collectibles, activities, events.Power Dressing defined in the 1980's BOOKS: REF E169.1.P19 Panati's Parade of Fads, Follies and Manias Arranged by decade, includes fads, dance crazes, radio, tv, popular books and songs.E169.1.S9733 Culture as History : The Transformation of American Excellent source for this topic. Events which transformed the social, political and cultural face of America in this century. Society in the Twentieth CenturyREF GT510 .B6713 20,000 Years of Fashion Chapter XIII covers 1960-1983. With illustrations and photographs.GT605.H35 Common Threads: A Parade of American Clothing Includes an overview of the 20th century, then chapters on contributors to changes in fashion. MUSIC & MEDIA

Cable was born and MTV, orginally intended to be promos for albums, had an enormous impact on music and young people. The digital compact disc (cd) revolutionized the music industry. Dances learned on MTV included slam dancing, lambada, and break dancing. Harlem's gay, black, and Latino males imitated the beautiful jet set with their (then underground) Vogueing, a 'pose' dance popularized by Madonna incorporating the struts and stances of high fashion models.Pop, rock, new wave, punk, country, and especially rap or hip hop became popular in the 80s. Rap was new in the late 80s and 90s. Rap had started in prison 20 years earlier by jailed black inmates who, in the absense of instruments, turned poetic meter into musical rhythm. The early rap heard on ghetto streets was abrasive and laced with hostility toward society. Early important groups are Milli Vanilli, M. C. Hammer , Vanilla Ice, and L.L. Cool J. There are great links on the Internet for music of the 80s listed below. Here are a very few favorites from the top hits of the decade:

1970s

FACTS about this decade. Population: 204,879,000 Unemployed in 1970: 4,088,000 National Debt: $382 billion Average salary: $7,564 Food prices: milk, 33 cents a qt.; bread, 24 cents a loaf; round steak, $1.30 a pound Life Expectancy: Male, 67.1; Female, 74.8 The chaotic events of the 60's, including war and social change, seemed destined to continue in the 70's. Major trends included a growing disillusionment of government, advances in civil rights, increased influence of the women's movement, a heightened concern for the environment, and increased space exploration. Many of the "radical" ideas of the 60's gained wider acceptance in the new decade, and were mainstreamed into American life and culture. Amid war, social realignment and presidential impeachment proceedings, American culture flourished. Indeed, the events of the times were reflected in and became the inspiration for much of the music, literature, entertainment, and even fashion of the decade. The purpose of this web and library guide is to help the user gain a broad understanding and appreciation for the culture and history of the 1970s. In a very small way, this is a bibliographic essay. While there is no way we can link to everything, we have attempted to find areas of special interest and to select information that we hold dear today - movies we watch, songs we sing, events that move us, people we admire.To see the whole picture, we encourage users to browse all the way through this page and then visit the suggested links for more information on the decade. We feel the best way to immerse oneself in a topic is to use both Internet and the library. The real depth of information is best read in books. More photographs, more information, more depth. Then, there is information that will be found only on the Internet; a journal from someone, photographs like those on our pages. If you can add a valuable site or information to this page, we invite you to write. Thanks for the visit. ENJOY!ART & ARCHITECTURESeventies art reflected a slowing and refinement of some of the avant-garde trends prominent in the Sixties. Earth art, a movement that combined environmental and minimalist ideas on a large scale, was promoted by artists such as Michael Heizer, Walter de Maria,Robert Smithson, James Turrel, Alice Aycock, Claes Oldenburg, and Richard Serra. Massive earthworks such as Smithson's Spiral Jetty, challenged all the rules regarding mass, time, size, and space. Land art and environmental art, variations of earth art, were also prominent. Other notable schools of art were illusionism, which sought to surprise viewers and cause them to question their interpretation of reality, and photo realism and hyperrealism, which imitated photography, created by such artists as Richard Estes. Pop Art was still represented by artists such as Andy Warhol and David Hockney; and George Segal continued to sculpt his white plaster, such as Three Figures on Four Benches (1979). The influence of the women's movement was represented by Lynda Benglis, Jackie Winsor, and Judy Chicago, who created the feminist art exhibition, The Dinner Party. Performance art challenged the traditional, stationary aspect of art. Andrew Wyeth began painting his Helga pictures.In architecture, the "modern movement" retreated and there was a gradual move toward architectural humanism and a renewed respect for traditional and historical design. Increasingly architects attempted to consider the needs and feelings of the people who would use their buildings.The historical element is evident in the pyramid form of San Francisco's Transamerica Building (William L. Pereira, 1972) and the classical Piazza d'Italia in New Orleans (Charles Moore, 1979). Houston's Pennzoil Place (Philip Johnson and John Burgee, 1976) combined modernism with humanism utilizing an eight-story atrium to connect two trapezoid-shaped towers. Architect Paolo Soleri, advocated Arcology, a new theory of architecture embodying the fusion of architecture with ecology. Modernism survived in buildings such as the Frank Gehry House in Santa Monica, California (1978), and the Dallas City Hall , designed by I.M. Pei (1978).Other noteworthy structures of the decade include:Kimball Art Museum, Fort Worth, Louis I. Kahn (completed 1972)Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Gunnar Birkerts (1972)Sears Tower, Chicago, Bruce Graham (1974)National Air & Space Museum, Washington, D.C., Gyo Obata (1976), andI. M. Pei's East Wing of the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. (1974 to 1978).LINKSLinks to Later 20th Century Art Resources for the Study of Art History from the Department of Art History, Sweet Briar College, Virginia.American Architecture - Twentieth Century - 1970 to 1979 From the Great Building Collection. Digital Archive of American Architecture By century and building type from Boston College.Great Buildings Collection from Architecture Week.Art on the Internet Art research guide from Kingwood College.Art History Resources on the Web Impressive research guide by Christopher L. C. E. Whitcomb, Professor of Art History at Sweet Briar College, Virginia.Artwork of the 70s Compiled by the Castellani Art Museum of Niagara University, New York.BOOKSN6490 .L792 1997 Visual Arts in the Twentieth Century History of art in the 20th Century which includes all art forms and architecture. Arranged chronologically by decade.N6512 .A578 1985 American Artists: Illustrated Survey of Leading Contemporary Americans Reviews and biographical data on more than 1,000 living American artists.N6537 .C48 A2 1996 Beyond the Flower: the Autobiography of a Feminist Artist Autobiography of Judy Chicago.N6537 .W86 W55 1987 Andrew Wyeth: the Helga Pictures Photographs with criticism and interpretation. N6797 .H57 A4 1993 Hockney, David. That's the Way I See It. NA712 .L4 1993 20th Century American Architecture Photographs and discussions of 200 key buildings.NA712 .R86 Architecture and Design, 1970-1990 Discusses architectural trends as a reflection of the times.NA737 .K32 B73 1992 Kimbell Art Museum Architecture in detail, an examination of the building with photos, drawings and discussion.NB237 .S44 H86 1989 George Segal Essay and 132 photographs of his true-to life sculptures, which often capture the pulse of the time.NB237 .S46 A4 Richard Serra: Sculpture Retrospective study of more than 100 of his works.BOOKS & LITERATURE Many of the books published in the 70's revolved around a general theme of man's alienation from his spiritual roots. John Updike portrayed characters trying to find meaning in a society spiritually empty and in a state of moral decay. Joyce Carol Oates wrote of the search for spiritual meaning in the contemporary world, and Kurt Vonnegut explored the loneliness of contemporary society and the power hungry materialism that pervaded it. One of the strongest literary voices to emerge from this decade was Toni Morrison, who examined the Black American experience as never before. The poetry of Rod McKuen was immensely popular. No playwright dominated this decade of both social and artistic unrest. Among the most acknowledged were Sam Shepard, Lanford Wilson, David Mamet, Christopher Durang, and Neil Simon.LINKS1970's Bestsellers Provided by Cader BooksHit Parade of Literature Comprehensive listing of prize-winning literature organized by decade (Pulitzer, Nobel, National Books Award) from Sigma Tau Delta, the English Honor SocietyBooks That Define the Time All the President's Men - Carl Bernstein and Bob WoodwardThe Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations by Christopher LaschThe Hite Report: A Nationwide Study of Female Sexuality - Shere HiteI'm OK, You're OK - Thomas A. HarrisJonathan Livingston Seagull - Richard BachBooks About BooksPN50 .L574 Literature and Its Times Profiles notable literary works and the historical events that influenced them. Vol. 5 covers 1960 forward.Z1003.2 B66 1998 Books of the Century Anthology of the best writing about books and authors originally published in The New York Times Book Review, arranged chronologically from 1896-1997. Z1003.2. C66 1993 American Literacy 4-6 page essays on 50 books that define the American culture.Children's Book Award Winners of the seventies: Newbery Award Winners - Began in 1922 (most distinguished book of the previous year) 1970: Sounder by William H. Armstrong1971: Summer of the Swans by Betsy Byars 1972: Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien1973: Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George1974: The Slave Dancer by Paula Fox1975: M. C. Higgins, the Great by Virginia Hamilton1976: The Grey King by Susan Cooper1977: Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor 1978: Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson1979: The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin Caldecott Award Winners - Began in 1938 (most distinguished picture book of the previous year) 1970: Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig1971: A Story A Story, retold and illustrated by Gail E. Haley 1972: One Fine Day, retold and illustrated by Nonny Hogrogian 1973: The Funny Little Woman, illustrated by Blair Lent; text: retold by Arlene Mosel 1974: Duffy and the Devil, illustrated by Margot Zemach; retold by Harve Zemach1975: Arrow to the Sun by Gerald McDermott1976: Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears, illustrated by Leo & Diane Dillon; text: retold by Verna Aardema1977: Ashanti to Zulu: African Traditions, illustrated by Leo & Diane Dillon; text: Margaret Musgrove1978: Noah's Ark by Peter Spier1979: The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses by Paul Goble

LA 216 .C73 1990American Education : The Metropolitan Experience 1876-1980History of education. Other titles by Lawrence A. Cremin also may be helpful.REF LB15 .E47 2003Encyclopedia of EducationEight volume set with more than 850 signed articles examining institutions, processes, roles, and philosophies. Also includes brief biographies of influential educators and relevant Supreme Court cases.REF LB15 .H57 1999 Historical Dictionary of American EducationContains more than 350 alphabetically arranged entries on the development of American elementary and secondary education.LA11.L8 1972Our Western Educational HeritageThe final long chapter contains a history of the American educational system.

E169.1.P19 1991Panati's Parade of Fads, Follies and ManiasArranged by decade, includes fads, dance crazes, radio, TV, popular books and songs.E169.1.S9733 1984Culture as History: The Transformation of American Society in the Twentieth CenturyExcellent source for this topic. Events which transformed the social, political and cultural face of America in this century.GT510 .B671320,000 Years of FashionChapter XIII covers 1960-1983. With illustrations and photographs.GT605.H35 1992Common Threads: A Parade of American ClothingIncludes an overview of the 20th century, then chapters on contributors to changes in fashion.

TECHNOLOGYThe floppy disc appeared in 1970, and the next year Intel introduced the microprocessor, the "computer on a chip." Apollo 17, the last manned craft to the moon, brought back 250 samples of rock and soil. Unmanned space probes explored the moon, Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, Uranus, and Venus. The U.S. Apollo 18 and the USSR's Soyuz 19 linked up in space to conduct joint experiments. Atari produced the first low-priced integrated circuit TV games, and the videocassette recorder (VCR) changed home entertainment forever. Jumbo jets revolutionized commercial flight, doubling passenger capacity and increasing flight range to 6,000 miles. The neutron bomb, which destroys living beings but leaves buildings intact, was developed. In medicine, ultrasound diagnostic techniques were developed. The sites of DNA production on genes were discovered, and the fledging research in genetic engineering was halted pending development of safer techniques. The first test tube baby, Louise Brown, was born, developed from an artificially inseminated egg implanted in the mother's womb. Other noteworthy developments of the 1970s included these inventions or innovations: email (1971), first retail barcode scanned (1974), the laser printer (1975), MRI scanner (1977), and the first space lab (USA Skylab, 1973).LINKSComputer Chronicles a history of important developments in computer technologyTimeline of Computer History from the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CATwentieth-Century Inventions a timeline of innovation from About.comWeb Sites on Invention and Innovation from the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention & InnovationBOOKSQ125 .A765 Asimov's Chronology of Science & Discovery Scientific breakthroughs by yearT15 .C378 Scientific American Inventions and Discoveries: All the Milestones in Ingenuity from the Discovery of Fire to the Invention of the Microwave OvenEVENTS AND PEOPLE During the 1970's the United States underwent some profound changes. First a Vice President and then a President resigned under threat of impeachment. The Vietnam War continued to divide the country even after the Paris Peace Accords in January 1973 put an end to U.S. military participation in the war. Roe v. Wade legalized abortion. Crime increased despite Nixon's pledge to make law and order a top priority of his presidency. Increased immigration followed passage of the Immigration Act of 1965, which reformed an earlier policy that favored western Europeans. People from Third World countries came to this country in search of economic betterment or to escape political repression. Women, minorities, and gays increasingly demanded full legal equality and privileges in society. Women expanded their involvement in politics. The proportion of women in state legislatures tripled. Women surpassed men in college enrollment in 1979. However, the rising divorce rate left an increasing number of women as sole breadwinners and forced more and more of them into poverty. African-Americans also made their presence felt as the number of black members in Congress increased, and cities such as Los Angeles, Detroit, and Atlanta elected their first African-American mayors. Affirmative action became a controversial policy as minorities and women asserted their rights to jobs and quality education. Native Americans began to demand attention to their plight. In 1975 the Indian Self-Determination Act encouraged Indians to take control of their own education and promote their tribal customs.Presidents: Richard M. Nixon (1969-1974), Gerald Ford (1974-1977), and Jimmy Carter (1977-1981). Houston's U.S. Representative Barbara Jordan gained national prominence with her eloquence during the Watergate investigation and hearings which resulted in impeachment proceedings against Nixon.IMPORTANT HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL EVENTS

1960

FACTS about this decade. Population 177,830,000Unemployment 3,852,000National Debt 286.3 BillionAverage Salary $4,743Teacher's Salary $5,174Minimum Wage $1.00Life Expectancy: Males 66.6 years, Females 73.1 yearsAuto deaths 21.3 per 100,000An estimated 850,000 "war baby" freshmen enter college; emergency living quarters are set up in dorm lounges, hotels and trailer camps.1960 - 1969The sixties were the age of youth, as70 million children from the post-war baby boom became teenagers and young adults. The movement away from the conservative fifties continued and eventually resulted in revolutionary ways of thinking and real change in the cultural fabric of American life. No longer content to be images of the generation ahead of them, young people wanted change. The changes affected education, values, lifestyles, laws, and entertainment. Many of the revolutionary ideas which began in the sixties are continuing to evolve today.The purpose of this web and library guide is to help the user gain a broad understanding and appreciation for the culture and history of the 1960s. In a very small way, this is a bibliographic essay. While there is no way we can link to everything, we have attempted to find areas of special interest and to select information that we hold dear today - movies we watch, songs we sing, events that move us, people we admire.To see the whole picture, we encourage users to browse all the way through this page and then visit the suggested links for more information on the decade. We feel the best way to immerse oneself in a topic is to use both Internet and the library. The real depth of information is best read in books. More photographs, more information, more depth. Then, there is information that will be found only on the Internet; a journal from someone, photographs like those on our pages. If you can add a valuable site or information to this page, we invite you to write. Thanks for the visit. ENJOY!ART & ARCHITECTURE: Library of Congress browsing areas are: N-NXARCHITECTUREArchitecture in the sixties was undergoing a refinement of Modernism and a move to an even more streamlined contemporary look. Tall buildings or skyscrapers created a distinctly American structural type. Architects such as Philip Johnson, and John Burgee, of Johnson & Burgee (Kline Biological Tower), are some of the architects who designed office buildings which helped create a different look for the skylines of large cities. Architects used light and space, for example the Cleo Rogers Memorial Library by I.M. Pei , to create buildings which were adapted for the activities which took place in them. The influence of space and futuristic design was apparent in some public buildings like the NASA complex at Houston, Texas . Eero Saarinen created the Memorial Arch in St. Louis, Missouri in 1965. Walter Gropius designed the Pan Am Building (now called the Met Life Building) in 1963 with Pietro Belluschi and Emery Rothe & Sons. Louis I. Kahn in his Kimbell Art Museum of Ft. Worth and other buildings brought a feeling of austerity to American architecture. Robert Venturi wrote Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture in 1966 and called for a change in the reductive simplicity of Modernism, beginning a protest in the late 60's. Perhaps one of the most well known and influential architects whose career began to rise in the sixties is I. M. Pei . Peter Eisenman and Frank O. Gehry are architects who have become world famous for their distinctive designs and who began making names for themselves during this time. Designers like Herman Miller left their mark on furnishings. Sleek contemporary styles like those by Verner Panton have translated well into future decades of furniture.ARTAs in the fifties, art in America of the sixties was influenced by the desire to move into the modern age or future which the space age seemed to forecast. Major works by Alexander Calder (mobiles and sculpture) or Helen Frankenthaler (non-representational art) showed a desire to escape from details to interpret. Artists wanted to inspire the viewer to leap into the unknown and experience art in their own way. A new artist who appeared was Andy Warhol, a leading name in pop art. Other forms evolving during this time were assemblage art, op art (or optical art) (ex. Vasarely ), or kinetic abstraction (ex. Marcel Duchamp ), environmental art (ex. Robert Smithson ), and pop art , (ex. David Hockney ). BOOKS ON ART AND ARCHITECTURE:N 6490 .L792 Visual Arts in the Twentieth Century History of art in the 20th Century which includes all art forms and architecture. Set up chronologically by decade.N 6512.5 .P6 P63 Pop Art A Critical History Nicely covers this form of art and the artistsN 6512.5 .M63 F56 Art Since 1940 strategies of being Chapters 9 and 10 cover the sixties. Chapter 11 gives info on the transition to the seventiesN 6537 .W28 A4 America of the Sixties Books like this one go into great depth on the career of a single artist and his work.To the topBOOKS & LITERATURE Literature also reflected what was happening in the political arenas and social issues of America in the sixties. A book which described some of the turmoil of race relations as they affected people in America, Harper Lee's Pulitzer prize winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird is a story about a small southern town and social distinctions between races. Writing about race and gender, women of color like Gwendolyn Brooks, Maya Angelou and Margaret Walker Alexander helped create new insights on feminism as it developed in America. Sylvia Plath (The Bell Jar), and Mary McCarthy (The Group) spoke of women in roles outside those of the happy wife and mother of the fifties. Women like Betty Friedan, author of The Feminine Mystique , and Gloria Steinem , led the way for many women. Disillusionment with the system was the theme of books like Catch-22 and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.Marshall McLuhan, author of books on communications and the scope of the "global village," popularized his belief that mass communications were a driving force in the development of modern society in works like The Gutenberg Galaxy and Understanding Media . The Peter Principle, by Laurence Peter, came to epitomize incompetence. In 1963, Maurice Sendak published Where the Wild Things Are, about a boy named Max who must face some of his childhood fears. This controversial book with its illustrations, also by Sendak, won the Caldecott Medal in 1964 and has become a classic in children's literature.LINKSHistory of Comic booksThe Sixties Project BOOKS: Library of Congress browsing areas include: PS - American Literature; Z - Books and LibrariesBooks that define the time:The Silent Spring - Rachel Carson The Games People Play -Eric BerneValley of the Dolls - Jacqueline Susann In Cold Blood - Truman Capote The Feminine Mystique - Betty FriedanUnsafe at any Speed - Ralph NaderElectric Kool-Aid Acid Test - Tom WolfeBooks about books:E173.A793 Annals of America Vol 18 contains essays by the important writers of the time, including excerpts from books listed above.REF Z1003.2. C66 1993 American Literacy 4-6 page essays on 50 books that define the American culture, includes eight books from this decade.REF Z1219.C96 1905 (annual) Book Review Digest Indexes and abstracts book reviews. Use it to find books written during the period and their reviewsChildren's Book Award Winners of the 60's Newbery Award Winners - Began in 1922 (awarded to the most distinguished children's book of the previous year)1960: Onion John by Joseph Krumgold1961: Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell 1962: The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare 1963: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'EngleWojciechowska 1964: It's Like This, Cat by Emily Neville 1965: Shadow of a Bull by Maia1966: I, Juan de Pareja by Elizabeth Borton de Trevino 1967: Up a Road Slowly by Irene Hunt 1968: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg 1969: The High King by Lloyd AlexanderCaldecott Award Winners - Began in 1938 (awarded to the most distinguished children's picture book of the previous year)1960: Nine Days to Christmas, illustrated by Marie Hall Ets; text: Marie Hall Ets and Aurora Labastida1961: Baboushka and the Three Kings, illustrated by Nicolas Sidjakov; text: Ruth Robbins 1962: Once a Mouse, retold and illustrated by Marcia Brown 1963: The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats 1964: Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak 1965: May I Bring a Friend? illustrated by Beni Montresor; text: Beatrice Schenk de Regniers1966: Always Room for One More, illustrated by Nonny Hogrogian; text: Sorche Nic Leodhas, pseud. [Leclair Alger] 1967: Sam, Bangs & Moonshine by Evaline Ness 1968: Drummer Hoff, illustrated by Ed Emberley; text: adapted by Barbara Emberley1969: The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship, illustrated by Uri Shulevitz; text: retold by Arthur RansomeTo the topEDUCATION During the sixties, college campuses became centers of debate and scenes of protest more than ever before. Great numbers (statistics) of young adults, baby boomers, reaching military draft age (selective service) and not yet voting age (minimum voting age did not become 18 until 1971), caused a struggle which played out on many campuses as the country became more involved (timeline) in the Vietnam War.In 1966, James S. Coleman commissioned by the government, published Equality of Educational Opportunity, a landmark study that led the way to forced integration and bussing in the 1970's.Problems in secondary schools, discovered in the fifties, were being addressed in books such as James B. Conant's The American High School Today. A return to the teaching of basic thinking skills was seen to be part of the solution. In grade schools across the nation, phonics made a come back as reading specialists try to fix what was wrong in American education in the fifties.The picture to the right shows the first teacher allowed to teach pregnant (and showing) in Clear Creek School District. It was the end of 1968.LINKSGender inequality and growth/paper from the WorldBankBOOKSREF E173.A793 Annals of America Vol. 18 has a chapter from Equality of Educational Opportunity and several articles about student unrest.REF E174.D52 Dictionary of American History This multi-volume set has a very good entry under "Education". Volume 2LA 11.L8 Our Western Educational Heritage The final long chapter contains history of American educational system.LA 216.C73 American Education : The Metropolitan Experience 1876-1980 History of education. Other titles by Lawrence A. Cremin may be helpful.REF LA217.2 .V36 Public Schooling in America Brief information about all the landmarks of education.To the topFADS & FASHIONFADSYouth predominated the culture of the 1960's. The post World War II Baby Boom had created 70 million teenagers for the sixties, and these youth swayed the fashion, the fads and the politics of the decade. California surfers took to skateboards as a way to stay fit out of season, and by 1963, the fad had spread across the country. Barbie dolls, introduced by Mattel in 1959, became a huge success in the sixties, so much so that rival toy manufacturer Hasbro came up with G. I. Joe, 12 inches tall and the first action figure for boys. Another doll, the troll or Dammit doll (named for it's creator, Thomas Dam) was a good luck symbol for all ages. Slot cars overtook toy trains in popularity.COSTUMES / FASHIONThe 1960's began with crew cuts on men and bouffant hairstyles on women. Men's casual shirts were often plaid and buttoned down the front, while knee-length dresses were required wear for women in most public places. By mid-decade, miniskirts or hot pants, often worn with go-go boots, were revealing legs, bodywear was revealing curves, and women's hair was either very short or long and lanky. Men's hair became longer and wider, with beards and moustaches. Men's wear had a renaissance. Bright colors, double-breasted sports jackets, polyester pants suits with Nehru jackets, and turtlenecks were in vogue. By the end of the decade, ties, when worn, were up to 5" wide, patterned even when worn with stripes. Women wore peasant skirts or granny dresses and chunky shoes. Unisex dressing was popular, featuring bell bottomed jeans, love beads, and embellished t-shirts. Clothing was as likely to be purchased at surplus stores as boutiques. Blacks of both genders wore their hair in an afro. LINKSCostumer's Manifesto Links to world wide of fashion . Good ones.Baby Boomers Headquarters a site on the decade. Includes an interesting quiz on happenings from 1960-1969.The Sixties Project the Viet Nam generationBadfads Descriptions of the styles of the sixtiesHairstyle history gallery Online costume and hair gallery Sixties City Culture, music, history. A little of everything. BOOKS on artREF E169.1.P19 Panati's Parade of Fads, Follies and Manias Arranged by decade, includes fads, dance crazes, radio, TV, popular books and songs.E 169.1.R7755 Mass Culture: The Popular Arts in America Important essays analyzing mass culture in American history.GT 596.L64 Radical Rags: Fashion of the Sixties An in-depth look at the fashion of the sixties. Great photos BOOKS on fashionREF D840.P27 Day By Day: The Sixties Two volumes on the sixties give a closer look at current events during this turbulent decadeREF E169.12 .A418 Dictionary of Twentieth Century Culture: American Culture After World War II Encyclopedic listings of prominent people and trendsGT605.H35 Common Threads: A Parade of American Clothing Includes an overview of the 20th century, then chapters on contributors to changes in fashion. If you only see one book, this is the one. It has photographs of people in turn of the century dress styles from the suffragettes to the businesslike attire of women & workman's factory attire to those in the 'oldest profession'. HISTORIC EVENTS AND TECHNOLOGY The Civil Rights movement made great changes in society in the 1960's. The movement began peacefully, with Martin Luther King and Stokely Carmichael leading sit-ins and peaceful protests, joined by whites, particularly Jews. Malcolm X preached about Black Nationalism. After his assassination, the Black Panthers were formed to continue his mission. In 1965, the Watts riots broke out in Los Angeles. The term "blacks" became socially acceptable, replacing "Negroes." The number of Hispanic Americans tripled during the decade and became recognized as an oppressed minority. Cesar Chavez organized Hispanics in the United Farm Workers Association. American Indians, facing unemployment rates of 50% and a life expectancy only two-thirds that of whites, began to assert themselves in the courts and in violent protests. The Presidential Commission of the Status of Women (1963) presented disturbing facts about women's place in our society. Betty Friedan, Pauli Murray and Gloria Steinem, (National Organization for Women) questioned the unequal treatment of women, gave birth to Women's Lib, and disclosed the "glass ceiling." The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was amended to include gender. The birth control pill became widely available and abortion for cause was legalized in Colorado in 1967. In 1967, both abortion and artificial insemination became legal in some states.The Supreme Court decided in Engel v. Vitale, 370 U.S. 421, 1962, that prayer in the public schools was unconstitutional. As the 1960's progressed, many young people turned from mainstream Protestant religions to mystic eastern religions such as Transcendental Meditation (Maharishi Mahesh Yogi) or Zen Buddhism. Respect for authority declined among the youth, and crime rates soared to nine times the rate of the 1950's. Marijuana use soared. Respected figures such as Timothy Leary encouraged the use of LSD as a mind-opening drug. The hippie movement endorsed drugs, rock music, mystic religions and sexual freedom. They opposed violence. The Woodstock Festival at which 400,000 young people gathered in a spirit of love and sharing, represents the pinnacle of the hippie movement. Many hippies moved to Haight Ashbury in San Francisco, East Village in New York City, or lived in communes.When Fidel Castro, soon after overtaking Cuba, declared that he was a communist, the United States broke off diplomatic relations. Castro seized American property. The CIA attacked Cuba in an ill-fated mission at the Bay of Pigs. In 1962, a spy plane identified long range missiles in Cuba. President John F. Kennedy readied troops to invade Cuba, and the Soviet Union prepared to fire at US cities if we made a move.John F. Kennedy was young and charismatic, and his brief reign as president was often called Camelot. He was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald in 1963. His Vice President, Lyndon B. Johnson became president, and was reelected the following year. To prevent communist North Vietnam from overtaking South Vietnam, the United States sent military advisors and then soldiers. It was largely a secret war until 1965, when massive troop buildups were ordered to put an end to the conflict. The draft was accelerated and anti-war sentiment grew in the US. College students organized anti-war protests, draft dodgers fled to Canada, and there were reports of soldiers reflected the growing disrespect for authority, shooting their officers rather than follow orders. Johnson, blamed by many for the war and the racial unrest in the country, did not run for reelection in 1968. John Kennedy's brother, Robert campaigned for the nomination for President and he, too was killed. Malcolm X was assassinated in 1965 and Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1968. The Space Race, begun by the Soviets in 1957, was highlighted by Alan Shepard, the first American in space in 1961. In 1963, John Glenn was the first American to orbit the earth. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, in Apollo XI, were the first men to walk on the moon in 1969. The surgeon general determined that smoking was a health hazard, and in 1965 required cigarette manufacturers to place warnings on all packages and in all ads. The first clone of a vertebrate, a South African tree frog, was produced in 1967. Dr. Denton Cooley implanted the first artificial heart in a human, and it kept the patient alive for three days until a human heart could be transplanted.People became more concerned with their health and their environment. Rachel Carson's Silent Spring awakened the environmental movement and the Sierra Club gained a following. Ralph Nader's book, Unsafe at any Speed, led to the consumer movement.Important Historic and Cultural Events 1961 - Peace Corps created by Pres. Kennedy1963 - Martin Luther King delivers his I have a dream speech1963 - Pres. John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas1963 - Lyndon Johnson becomes President of the United StatesLINKSHistorical Atlas of the 20th Century Collection of maps and stats of the 20th centuryEarly Information and Technology Pictures and essays from Library of Congress.Genealogy Guide Helpful guide for locating past people, places and events.BOOKS Library of Congress browsing areas : E -F - U.S. History [ Remember, history covers all areas of the library.]REF E18.5.U75 Timetables of American History Include history and politics, the arts, science and technology, and other info of interest.REF E178.5.A48 Album of American History Vol VI and supp This is a great book to give the reader the real flavor of the decade because it is made up of photographs, captions, and brief entries.REF E174.D52 Dictionary of American History From very brief to multi-page signed entries on topics in American History.REF E169.1 A71872 1995 Day by Day : The Sixties What happened in politics, science and culture each day for the entire decade.REF E169.1 A471872 1995 America in the 20th Century 1960 - 1969 is covered in volume 8. Typical of Marshall Cavendish, this encyclopedic set is accessible and gives easy to use background information for this decade. Covers from art to transportation.REF E173.A793 The Annals of America vol. 18. Set contains essays and excepts from important writers and on important topics of the time. Most valuable for this research.REF Q125 .A765 Asimov's Chronology of Science & Discovery Scientific breakthroughs by year. FINDING PEOPLE IN BOOKSREF N7593 .C93 Dictionary of American Portraits Photographs or drawings of important Americans. Brief description of their contribution. Arranged by person.REF E176 .D563 Dictionary of American Biography Annual. Arranged by person. Up to 1 page biographical entries.REF E176.W64 1897-1942 v.1 Who Was Who in America Brief entries alphabetical by person.MUSIC In 1960, Elvis returned to the music scene from the US Army, joining the other white male vocalists at the top of the charts; Bobby Darin, Neil Sedaka, Jerry Lee Lewis, Paul Anka, Del Shannon and Frankie Avalon. America, however, was ready for a change. The Tamla Motown Record Company came on the scene, specializing in black rhythm and blues, aided in the emergence of female groups such as Gladys Knight and the Pips, Martha and the Vandellas, the Supremes, and Aretha Franklin, as well as some black men, including Smoky Robinson, James Brown, Jimi Hendrix, and the Temptations. Bob Dylan helped bring about a folk music revival, along with Joan Baez and Peter, Paul & Mary. The Beach Boys began recording music that appealed to high schoolers. The Beatles, from England, burst into popularity with innovative rock music that appealed to all ages. The Righteous Brothers were a popular white duo who used African American styling to create a distinctive sound.There was a major change in popular music in the mid-1960's, caused in part by the drug scene. Acid Rock, highly amplified and improvisational, and the more mellow psychedelic rock gained prominence. When the Beatles turned to acid rock, their audience narrowed to the young. Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead grew out of the counterculture in 1967. The musical phenomena of the decade was Woodstock, a three day music festival that drew 400,000 hippies and featured peace, love, and happiness...and LSD. Folk music contributed to the counterculture.The modular synthesizer (aka moog synthesizer), developed in 1960 by Robert Moog and Donald Buchla, marked a major change in serious music. Innovative composers were already experimenting with electroacoustic music. Now they were able to go further with John Cage's 0'0 (Zero Silence) to be performed by anyone in anyway; Morton Subotnik's Silver Apples of the Moon; Robert Ashley's Wolfman. In 1967, Alvin Lucier, one of the co-founders of the Sonic Arts Union, created "Music for a Solo Performer," in which electrodes were attached to the performer's scalp. His alpha waves, controlled by his concentration, resonated from loudspeakers, accompanied by occasional percussion. Computers were used in music composition and sound synthesis, notably Max Mathews' Music IV and Music V. By the end of the decade, popular music was also using synthesizers and other electronic devices. LINKSLyricFind 50,000+ song lyrics. Search by keyword, artist or title.Radio Gold Live Listen to music of the sixtiesHistory of Rock 'n Roll One stop shopping for information on Rock BOOKS Library ofCongress browsing areas: M-MLREF ML200.H15 A Chronicle of American Music 1700-1995 Arranged by year, historical highlights, world cultural highlights, American art and literature, music - commercial and cultural.REF ML197.S634 Music Since 1900 Arranged by day, includes important premiers and musical events.REF ML128.S37L4 The Great American Song Thesaurus Arranged by year, summary of world and musical events, list of important songs.REF ML390.S983 Show Tunes 1905-1985 Features important composers. Lists their shows and the published music for each show.THEATER, FILM, RADIO, and TELEVISION By 1960, Broadway productions had become prohibitively expensive for adventurous offerings, and producers resorted to musicals and works proven elsewhere. It was a great decade for musicals, including Camelot, Hello Dolly, Oliver, Man of La Mancha, Hair, and Funny Girl. Even Off-Broadway was feeling the economic pinch. leading to the advent of off-off-Broadway, where innovative shows and new writers could get a start. Theater expanded outside New York City, and by 1966 for the first time, more actors were employed outside New York City than in it. The most prestigious playwright of the sixties is Edward Albee, who wrote Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf.Musicals that proved popular on Broadway were made into movies, including Sound of Music and My Fair Lady. After Marilyn Monroe died, Audrey Hepburn, star of My Fair Lady and Wait until Dark, was the idol of young girls. Disney offered family entertainment in 101 Dalmatians and Pinocchio. Movies became more political, commenting on the arms race as in Dr. Strangelove. Sex became more explicit, and occasionally nontraditional, as in Midnight Cowboy, Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice, and The Graduate. Six James Bond Movies, including Dr. No, From Russia With Love, and Goldfinger, combined sex and violence and were enormously popular. Previous taboos on sex, violence and language, were ignored, resulting in the need for a new film code by the MPAA.Radio continued to be the primary means of listening to music. The major development was a change from primarily AM to FM . Radio was supplemented by American Bandstand, watched by teens from coast to coast. They not only learned the latest music, but how to dance to it. When Chubby Checker introduced the twist on the show in 1961, a new craze was born, and dancing became an individual activity. The Mashed Potato, the Swim, the Watusi, the Monkey and the Jerk followed the Twist, mimicking their namesakes. Each new dance often lasted for just a song or two before the next one came along. Eventually the names and stylized mimicry ceased and the dancers just moved however they wanted. For those who preferred watching the dancers, Go-go girls, on stages or in bird cages, danced above the crowd.Television offered the second prime time cartoon show, the Flintstones , in 1960. (The first was Rocky and his Friends in 1959.) It appealed to both children and adults and set off a trend that included Alvin & the Chipmunks , the Jetsons , and Mr. Magoo. The Andy Griffith Show was the epitome of prime time family television, and ran for most of the decade. The Beverly Hillbillies heralded the rise of the sitcom. The supernatural and science fiction blended in many of the popular shows, including Bewitched, The Addams Family, My Favorite Martian , I Dream of Jeannie, Star Trek, the Outer Limits , and the Twilight Zone. In the late 60's, humor was revived in a show called Rowan and Martin's Laugh In, where many regular performers and guests became part of a show biz classic.LINKS Greatest Films - Plot summaries of Hollywood classicsSixties Sounds - Sounds of the girl groups of the sixtiesMovies of the 1960's - Film trends and censorship in the 1960's, from the University of SydneyBOOKS Library of Congress browsing areas for theatre and drama: PNREF PN2189.L85 Twentieth Century Theatre. A theater buff's bible. This book lists and describes by year premiers, productions, revivals, events, births/death/debuts in both America and Great Britain.REF PN1998 .A2 I48 Illustrated Who's Who of the Cinema. Brief entries by name, including photos.The list below represents only a beginning of what was happening in the cinema industry. New ground was broken with each new film. Books may be the best means of learning more on this topic.Year and Title of Film:1964 - Dr. Strangelove or How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Bomb - a satire on the dangers of atomic weapons1968 - The Graduate - a film showing how the generation gap affects communications1969 - Midnight Cowboy - an example a films with a more mature themeSPORTSThree Olympic Games were held during the sixties. In 1960, the winter games were held in Squaw Valley, the summer games were held in Rome. Some of the outstanding athletes in the 1960 games were, David Jenkins, gold in figure skating and Carol Heiss, gold in figure skating. The US ice hockey team also won the gold medal in these winter olympics. In Rome during the1960 games, among the US gold medalists were: world record setting Otis Davis, 400m, and olympic record setting Glenn Davis, 400m hurdles, William Nieder, shot put, and Al Oerter, discus. Wilma Rudoph won gold in both the 100m and 200m runs. Muhammad Ali won gold as a light heavyweight boxer. The women's 400m relay and the men's basketball team won gold, too. In 1964, the winter games were held in Innsbruck, Austria, and the summer games were held in Tokyo. Highlights for the US team were at the summer games where medalists included world records for Bob Hayes, 100m, olympic records for Henry Carr, 200m, Billy Mills, 10,000m, Dallas Long, shot put, and Al Oerter, discuss. Wyomia Tyus, 100m, and Edith McGuire, 200m, were gold medal women athletes. Once again the men's basketball team won gold and the men's 400m relay team set a world record. Don Schollander won two gold medals in the 100m and 400m freestyle swim. In 1968, the winter games were held in Grenoble France and the summer games were held in Mexico City. Figure skating champion Peggy Fleming won gold for her performance in Grenoble. In Mexico City, the men's track and field efforts were rewarded with world records for Jim Hines, 100m, Tommie Smith, 200m, Lee Evans, 400m, and the men's 400m relay team. Al Oerter set a third olympic record in the discuss throw. Wyomia Tyus set a world record in the 100m run, and the women 's 400m relay team set a world record. Debbie Meyer won 3 golds for 200, 400 and 800m freestyle swimming events.In professional sports, pitcher Sandy Koufax, National League, won the Cy Young award in baseball in 1963, 1965, and 1966. Other baseball greats included Willie Mays, Roberto Clemente, and Bob Gibson. Star football players included Abner Haynes, Dallas, 1960, Jim Nance, Boston, 1966, and Joe Namath, New York Jets, 1968. Basketball greats included Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Elvin Hayes and Elgin Baylor. Arthur Ashe became the first black man to win the U.S. Tennis Championship title in 1968. Arnold Palmer dominated golf in the 1960's. His chief rival, Jack Nicklaus, came along to begin his own great golf career.BOOKS Library of Congress browsing area for sports is GV. REF GV 697 .A1P32 - Sports Stars, published by Gale Research. This 2 vol. set contains photos of the athletes.REF GV 704 .S663 - Sports: Complete Virtual Reference, pub. by Firefly Books, information on sports, equipment and athletes.REF GV 709 .I58 - International Encyclopedia of Women and Sports, pub. by Gale, female athletes from around the world.REF GV 741 .S768 - Sports Illustrated Sports Almanac, lists past athletes by sport.REF GV 741 .I58 - ESPN Sports Almanac, similar to the Sports Illustrated Almanac, lists of athletes by sport.

The 1950s

The end of World War II brought thousands of young servicemen back to America to pick up their lives and start new families in new homes with new jobs. With an energy never before experienced, American industry expanded to meet peacetime needs. Americans began buying goods not available during the war, which created corporate expansion and jobs. Growth everywhere. The baby boom was underway... Facts about this decade ---Population: 151,684,000 (U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Bureau of the Census)*Unemployed: 3,288,000Life expectancy: Women 71.1, men 65.6Car Sales: 6,665,800Average Salary: $2,992Labor Force male/female: 5/2Cost of a loaf of bread: $0.14Bomb shelter plans, like the government pamphlet You Can Survive, become widely available

Books About BooksPS351.A35 American Drama 1940-1960 A critical history of American dramaREF E173.A793 Annals of America Vol 17contains essays by the important people of the time, including excerpts from books listed above.REF PS221.C8 Modern American Literature Multi volume work with excerpts from modern American writers showing changes in their work.PS228.B6 F67 Understanding the Beats A survey of the four major Beat writers, Kerouac, Ginsberg, Burroughs and Corso.Children's Book Award winners of the fifties: Newbery Award Winners - Began in 1922 (include the most distinguished children's book published the previous year).1950 - The Door in the Wall by Marguerite de Angeli 1951 - Amos Fortune, Free Man by Elizabeth Yates 1952 - Ginger Pye by Eleanor Estes 1953 - Secret of the Andes by Ann Nolan Clark 1954 - ...And Now Miguel by Joseph Krumgold 1955 - The Wheel on the School by Meindert DeJong 1956 - Carry On, Mr. Bowditch by Jean Lee Latham 1957 - Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorenson 1958 - Rifles for Watie by Harold Keith 1959 - The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George SpeareCaldecot Award Winners - Began in 1938 (include the most distinguished American picture book of the previous year).1950: Song of the Swallows by Leo Politi 1951: The Egg Tree by Katherine Milhous 1952: Finders Keepers, illustrated by Nicolas, pseud. (Nicholas Mordvinoff); text: Will, pseud. [William Lipkind] 1953: The Biggest Bear by Lynd Ward 1954: Madeline's Rescue by Ludwig Bemelmans 1955: Cinderella, or the Little Glass Slipper, illustrated by Marcia Brown; text: translated from Charles Perrault by Marcia Brown 1956: Frog Went A-Courtin', illustrated by Feodor Rojankovsky; text: retold by John Langstaff) 1957: A Tree Is Nice, illustrated by Marc Simont; text: Janice Udry 1958: Time of Wonder by Robert McCloskey 1959: Chanticleer and the Fox, illustrated by Barbara Cooney; text: adapted from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales by Barbara CooneyEDUCATION During the fifties, American education underwent dramatic and, for some, world shattering changes. Until 1954, an official policy of "separate but equal " educational opportunities for blacks had been determined to be the correct method to insure that all children in America received an adequate and equal education in the public schools of the nation. In 1954, Chief Justice Earl Warren and other members of the Supreme Court wrote in Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas that separate facilities for blacks did not make those facilities equal according to the Constitution. Integration was begun across the nation. In 1956, Autherine J.Lucy successfully enrolled in the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa. In 1957, Elizabeth Eckford was the first black teenager to enter then all-white Little Rock Central High School , Little Rock, Arkansas. Although integration took place quietly in most towns, the conflict at Central High School in Little Rock was the first of many confrontations in Arkansas which showed that public opinion on this issue was divided.Another crisis in education was uncovered by critics like Rudolph Flesch in his book Why Johnny Can't Read , who claimed that the American educational system was not doing its job. Other voices in the movement to revamp American schools were Arthur Bestor- Educational Wastelands, Albert Lynd- Quackery in the Public Schools, Robert Hutchins - The Conflict in Education, and Admiral Hyman Rickover- Education and Freedom.GENERAL LINKSDevelopments in Education Use the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the Nation's Report Card to see statistics on progress in Math, Reading and Science.Education Statistics from the Statistical Abstract of the United States, years 1960 to 1995.History of the United States Department of EducationBOO LA216.C73 American Education : The Metropolitan Experience 1876-1980 History of education. Other titles by Lawrence A. Cremin may be helpful.REF E173.A793 Annals of America Vol. 17 p.253 - 258 essay on Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka as well; p. 371-378 two essays on integration giving the Southern viewpoint.REF E174.D52 Dictionary of American History This multi-volume set has a very good entry under "Education" in Volume 2 and an entry on "integration" in Volume 3. Major legal decisions are listed alphabetically by title, ex. Brown v. the Board in Volume 1. KF4155.A93 Brown v. Topeka An African American's View of desegregation and miseducation.LA11.L8 Our Western Educational Heritage The final long chapter contains a history of the American educational system. On page 535, a discussion of "The Post-Dewey Era" gives the reader a description of schools in 1950.FADS & FASHION - these were a few of our favorite things Perhaps one of the things which most characterizes the 1950's was the strong element of conservatism and anticommunist feeling which ran throughout much of society. One of the best indicators of the conservative frame of mind was the addition of the phrase "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance. Religion was seen as an indicator of anti-communism. Fifties clothing was conservative. Men wore gray flannel suits and women wore dresses with pinched in waists and high heels. French fashion designers such as Dior, Chanel and Givenchy were popular and copied in America. Families worked together, played together and vacationed together at family themed entertainment areas like national parks and the new Disneyland. Gender roles were strongly held, girls played with Barbie dolls and Dale Evans gear, boys with Roy Rogers and Davy Crockett paraphernalia. Drive-in movies became popular for families and teens. Cars were seen as an indicator of prosperity and cool-ness. Highways were built to take people quickly from one place to another, by-passing small towns and helping to create central marketing areas or shopping malls such as Sharpstown Mall, Gulfgate Mall and Meyerland Plaza in Houston.Fashion successes were Bill Blass and his blue jeans, poodle skirts made of felt and decorated with sequins and poodle appliques, pony tails for girls, and flat tops and crew cuts for guys. Saddle shoes and blue suede loafers were popular. Teenagers were defined as a separate generation and were represented by James Dean who wore blue jeans in Rebel Without a Cause and created a fashion and attitude sensation. Activities we liked were flying saucer watching , and watching and dancing to Dick Clark's American Bandstand . Fad hits with kids were toys like hula hoops and Hopalong Cassidy guns and western gear, Davy Crockett coon skin hats and silly putty .LINKSThe Nifty Fifties Links to many Fifties fads and other information.Costumer's Manifesto Links to wide world of fashion . Good ones.Twentieth Century Fashion Women's fashionsof the fifties.Soulmates: A Century in Shoes Shoes throughout the century.Houston growth A history of the city from the Handbook of Texas Online.Fashion Era a British view of fifties fashions. Other decades of fashion are also linked.BOOKSREF E169.1.P19 Panati's Parade of Fads, Follies and Manias Arranged by decade, includes fads, dance crazes, radio, TV, popular books and songs.E 169.1.R7755 Mass Culture: The Popular Arts in America Important essays analyzing mass culture in American history.E169.1.S9733 Culture as History : The Transformation of American Society in the Twentieth Century Excellent source for this topic. Events which transformed the social, political and cultural face of America in this century. Costumes / FashionGT596 .E9 A History of 20th Century Fashion History with photographs of fashionGT738.B97 A Visual History of Costume The Twentieth Century Pages 93-105 show illustrations of fashions in the 1950'sGT596.C53 Costume Since 1945 Chapter 2 focuses on the1950's with line drawings of styles.MUSIC When the 1950's are mentioned, the first type of music to come to most people's minds is rock 'n roll. Developed from a blend of Southern blues and gospel music with an added strong back beat, this type of music was popular with teenagers who were trying to break out of the mainstream, conservative, American middle class mold. Popular artists such as Bill Haley, Elvis Presley, and Jerry Lee Lewis were promoted on radio by just as popular disc-jockeys (DJ's) like Alan Freed and the Big Bopper. The deaths of Lubbock singer Buddy Holly , Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper is still lamented by fans. The influence of these early rockers has been felt in popular music worldwide.Music in the Fifties was more than just rock 'n roll. Crooners like Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Perry Como and Dinah Shore were all popular. Many of these singers were the idols of the rockers who developed the new sounds. Many of their songs are still being played on radios, home stereos and CD players all over the world. LINKSHeavens Gate top tunes and artists of the fifties, music and lyrics.Banned Music timeline of events concerning banning rock and roll.Gershwin timeless music, still popular during the 50's.BOOKS Library of Congress browse areas: MREF ML200.H15 A Chronicle of American Music 1700-1995 Arranged by year. Historical highlights, world cultural highlights, American art and literature, music - commercial and cultural.REF ML197.S634 Music Since 1900 Arranged by day. Includes important premiers and musical events.REF ML128.S37L4 The Great American Song Thesaurus Arranged by year. Summary of world and musical events, list of important songs.REF ML390.S983 Show Tunes 1905-1985 Features important composers. Lists their shows and the published music for each show.TELEVISION Perhaps the most far reaching change in communications worldwide was the advancement in the area of television broadcasting. During the 1950's, television became the dominant mass media as people brought television into their homes in greater numbers of hours per week than ever before. In the early fifties, the number of hours young people watched TV steadily increased, a trend which has not changed greatly since that time. What was portrayed on television became accepted as normal. The ideal family, the ideal schools and neighborhoods, the world, were all seen in a way which had only partial basis in reality. People began to accept what was heard and seen on television because they were "eye witnesses" to events as never before. Programs such as You Are There brought historical events into the living rooms of many Americans. The affect on print news media and entertainment media was felt in lower attendance at movies and greater reliance on TV news sources for information. And then, in 1954, black and white broadcasts became color broadcasts. Shows called "sitcoms " like The Honeymooners , Lassie, Father Knows Best, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet , and I Love Lucy featured popular characters whose lives thousands of viewers watched and copied. Families enjoyed variety shows like Disneyland and The Ed Sullivan Show on Sunday evenings. Daytime programs like Guiding Light, a "soap opera" were popular and helped advertisers sell many products to the homemakers of America. News broadcasting changed from newsmen simply reading the news to shows which included videotaped pictures of events which had occurred anywhere in the world, and then to more and more live broadcasts of events happening at the time of viewing. This was made possible in 1951 with the development of coaxial cable and microwave relays coast to coast. When Edward R. Murrow began offering his weekly radio program (called "Hear It Now") on TV as "See It Now," the world of news broadcasting was irrevocably changed (eyewitness recounts the change)LINKSTelevision News Archive Television news history presented by Vanderbilt University.Chronology of TV broadcasting from Jeff Miller, teacher at Gulf High School in New Port Richey, FLThe first 75 years of Television from Tom Genova, many links on development of TV including advertising. Includes a timeline.BOOKS AND VIDEOSREF PN1992.18 .M874 Museum of Broadcast Communications Encyclopedia of Television - an excellent resource to use to understand the medium of television.E215.4 .Y68 2004 You Are There: The American Revolution prepares. Just one of the You Are There TV broadcasts the Kingwood College Library ownsTHEATER, FILM & RADIOWorks by well known dramatists still held audiences and won new admirers. Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire, and Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman were written in the 40's but were still very popular in the 50's. Eugene O'Neill finished Long Day's Journey into Night in 1957. Williams wrote Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955) and Baby Doll (1956) . Musicals were very well received. Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II, and Joshua Logan won acclaim with South Pacific in 1950. One of the most emotionally charged plays of 1956 was The Diary of Anne Frank. Dance underwent change during this period. Martha Graham's work influenced dancers worldwide. In 1958, Alvin Ailey created the American Dance Theatre which featured all-black casts and dance styles that were culturally based and truly American in style. Radio's influence was still very great as is seen in the rapid growth of Rock 'n Roll . The music of Perry Como, Rosemary Clooney and Nat King Cole among others was listened to by people carrying small transistor radios . Music could be heard in any location because it was now portable.LINKSHistory of Broadway Broadway 101 by Robert Rusie.Historic Films films of the fifties.Alien invasion and creature features Science Fiction in film from ClemsonHistory of Science Fiction Film Science Fiction film since the early twentieth century.Chronology of films Some favorite fifties moviesAnne Frank's Diary The exhibit based on Anne's original writings. Launch the exhibition to hear as well as see the diary.BOOKS Library of Congress browse area: PN - theater, PR - Acting, SF - producing playsREF PN2189.L85 Twentieth CenturyA theater buff's bible This book lists and describes by year premiers, productions, revivals, events, births/death/debuts in both America and Great Britain. TheatreREF PN1993.5.U6H55 The Transformation of Cinema Volumes 1 and 2 are needed to cover this decade. A great source for information about early cinema. Photographs.The list below are representative of what was happening in the cinema industry. New ground was broken with each new film. Books may be the best means of learning more on this topic.

1952 -3D cartoons and movies made their debut with Bwana Devil; Cinerama, CinemaScope and color were other special effects used to lure audiences1953 - Screen Actors Guild adopts a by-law banning Communists from membership1956 - Audiences find movies too expensive, so they stay at home to watch TVSPORTSPeople in the Fifties loved sports. More leisure time and greater general prosperity led to greater participation in athletic activities for the average person and added large numbers of fans to all types of sports. Unlike many areas of society in this decade, athletes were a diverse group. Popularity was not based on social status, but on the ability of the individual. All American sports such as baseball and football gave opportunities for the rise of stars like Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella, Henry (Hank) Aaron, Juan Marichal, Jim Brown, and Frank Gifford. Great women athletes played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.As television became more popular and available, other sports found growing numbers of fans. College football was widely followed. Professional golf became very popular with stars like Ben Hogan and Arnold Palmer helping to create the idea that to succeed in business, men needed to play golf. Women like Babe Zaharias-Didrikson created the Ladies Professional Golf Association in 1950, so women were joining men on golf courses all over America. People watched the Olympics 1952 and 1956 , and in part due to the Cold War, rivalry between countries became very fierce. Track and field athletes like Bob Mathias (decathlon) and Bobby Morrow (relay) were favorites.Sports like tennis, basketball and boxing were also popular in the fifties. Althea Gibson was the first African-American to play in the U. S. Lawn Tennis Nationals at Forest Hills, NY. Major names in basketball were Wilt Chamberlain, Elgin Baylor, Bob Cousy, Oscar Robertson and Dolph Schayes. Another favorite, boxing, gave opportunities to great athletes, Sugar Ray Robinson and Rocky Marciano.BOOKS Library of Congress browse area: GV - Sports. Also search under an athlete's name for a biography on a specific personREF GV567.H518 The Encyclopedia of North American Sports HistoryREF GV 697.A1 P32 Sports StarsREF GV 697.A1 W69 Outstanding Women AthletesREF GV 741.I58 Information Please Sports Almanac

The 1940s

The 1940's were dominated by World War II. European artists and intellectuals fled Hitler and the Holocaust, bringing new ideas created in disillusionment. War production pulled us out of the Great Depression. Women were needed to replace men who had gone off to war, and so the first great exodus of women from the home to the workplace began. Rationing affected the food we ate, the clothes we wore, the toys with which children played.After the war, the men returned, having seen the rest of the world. No longer was the family farm an ideal; no longer would blacks accept lesser status. The GI Bill allowed more men than ever before to get a college education. Women had to give up their jobs to the returning men, but they had tasted independencePopulation 132,122,000Unemployed in 1940 - 8,120,000National Debt $43 BillionAverage Salary $1,299. Teacher's salary $1,441Minimum Wage $.43 per hour55% of U.S. homes have indoor plumbingAntarctica is discovered to be a continentLife expectancy 68.2 female, 60.8 maleAuto deaths 34,500Supreme Court decides blacks do have a right to voteWorld War II changed the order of world power; the United States and the USSR become super powersCold War begins. The forties are pretty well defined by World War II. US isolationism was shattered by the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. As President Franklin D. Roosevelt guided the country on the homefront, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower commanded the troops in Europe. Gen. Douglas MacArthur and Adm. Chester Nimitz led them in the Pacific. The successful use of penicillin by 1941 revolutionized medicine. Developed first to help the military personnel survive war wounds, it also helped increase survival rates for surgery. The first eye bank was established at New York Hospital in 1944. Unemployment almost disappeared, as most men were drafted and sent off to war. The government reclassified 55% of their jobs, allowing women and blacks to fill them. First, single women were actively recruited to the workforce. In 1943, with virtually all the single women employed, married women were allowed to work. Japanese immigrants and their descendants, suspected of loyalty to their homelands, were sent to internment camps.There were scrap drives for steel, tin, paper and rubber. These were a source of supplies and gave people a means of supporting the war effort. Automobile production ceased in 1942, and rationing of food supplies began in 1943. Victory gardens were re-instituted and supplied 40% of the vegetables consumed on the home front. In April, 1945, FDR died, and President Harry Truman celebrated V-E Day on May 8, 1945. Japan surrendered only after two atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The United States emerged from World War II as a world superpower, challenged only by the USSR. While the USSR subjugated the defeated countries, the US implemented the Marshall Plan, helping war-torn countries to rebuild and rejoin the world economy. Disputes over ideology and control led to the Cold War. Communism was treated as a contagious disease, and anyone who had contact with it was under suspicion. Alger Hiss, a former hero of the New Deal, was indicted as a traitor and the House Un-American Activities Committee began its infamous hearings.Returning GI's created the baby boom, which is still having repercussions on American society today. Although there were rumors, it was only after the war ended that Americans learned the extent of the Holocaust. Realization of the power of prejudice helped lead to Civil Rights reforms over the next three decades. The Servicemen's Readjustment Act, commonly known as the GI Bill of Rights, entitled returning soldiers to a college education. In 1949, three times as many college degrees were conferred as in 1940. College became available to the capable rather than the privileged few.Television made its debut at the 1939 World Fair, but the war interrupted further development. In 1947, commercial television with 13 stations became available to the public. Computers were developed during the early forties. The digital computer, named ENIAC, weighing 30 tons and standing two stories high, was completed in 1945.WEB SITESAmerican History 1860 to the present Lone Star College - Kingwood Library history page for this period.World War II Historical text archive.Historical Atlas of the 20th Century Collection of maps and stats of the 20th century.Biography Index Biographies of over 25,000 famous persons, from the History Channel.Genealogy Guide Helpful in locating past people, places and events.BOOKSREF E18.5.U75 Timetables of American HistoryInclude history and politics, the arts, science and technology, and other information of interest.REF E178.5.A48 Album of American History Vol V and VIThis is a great book to give the reader the real flavor of the decade because it is made up of photographs, captions, and brief entries.REF E174.D62 Dictionary of American HistoryFrom very brief to multi-page signed entries on topics in American history. REF E740.7 .E53 Encyclopedia of the United States in the Twentieth CenturyArticles evaluating the trends in American politics, people, economics, culture.REF E169.1 A471872 America in the 20th Century 1940-1949 is covered in volume 5. Information is readable and concise, covering the War, the homefront, labor and the arts. REF E173.A793 The Annals of AmericaUse volume 16. Set contains essays and excepts from important writers and on important topics of the time. Most valuable for this research.ART & ARCHITECTURE

As Adolf Hitler systematically eliminated artists whose ideals didn't agree with his own, many emigrated to the United States, where they had a profound effect on American artists. The center of the western art world shifted from Paris to New York. To show the raw emotions, art became more abstract. Abstract Expressionism, also known as the New York School, was chaotic and shocking in an attempt to maintain humanity in the face of insanity. Jackson Pollock was the leading force in abstract expressionism, but many others were also influential, including Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, Ad Reinhardt, Robert Motherwell, Lee Krasner, Franz Kline, Piet Mondrian, Arshile Gorky, Adolf Gottlieb, and Hans Hofmann. Andrew Wyeth, the most popular of American artists, didn't fit in any movement. His most popular work, Christina's World, was painted in 1948. Sculpture, too, became abstract and primitive, utilizing motion in Alexander Calder's mobiles, and modern materials such as steel and "found objects" rather than the traditional marble and bronze.In architecture, nonessentials were eliminated, and simplicity became the key element. In some cases, such as Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's famous glass house, even practicality was ignored. Modern glass-and-steel office buildings began to rise after the war ended. Pietro Belluschi designed the prototype Equitable Savings and Loan building, a "skyscraper" of twelve stories. Eliel Saarinen utilized contemporary design, particularly in churches. The dream home remained a Cape Cod. After the war, suburbs, typified by Levittown, with their tract homes and uniformity, sprang up to house returning GI's and their new families. The average home was a one level Ranch House, a collection of previously unaffordable appliances surrounded by minimal living space. The family lawn became the crowning glory and symbol of pride in ownership.WEB SITESSkyscrapers A look at some of the skyscrapers in New York City. While not necessarily designed in the 1940's, they are a result of the 1940's innovations. Twentieth Century Art Links WorldwideGreat Buildings Online Important architecture of the 1940s. Descriptions included.BOOKSNA712 .L 20th Century American ArchicturePhotographs and descriptions of the key buildings of the era.NA6512 .A578 American ArtistsBrief entries and representational pictures of the artists' work.ND213.5 .R4 W36 American Realist Painting 1945-1980Post-war trendsREF N6490 .O94 Oxford Companion to Twentieth-Century ArtMedium length entries on the major artists of the century, worldwide.

MUSIC & RADIO Like art, music reflected American enthusiasm tempered with European disillusionment. While the European émigrés Bueno Walter, George Szell, Bela Bartok, Arnold Schoenberg, Paul Hindemith, Kurt Weill, and Nadia Boulanger introduced classical dissonance, American born composers remained more traditional, with Aaron Copland's Rodeo (1942) and Appalachian Spring (1944). William Schuman wrote his symphonies #3(1941) through #7(1949).At the beginning of the decade, Big Bands dominated popular music. Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman led some of the more famous bands. Eventually, many of the singers with the Big Bands struck out on their own. Bing Crosby's smooth voice made him one of the most popular singers, vying with Frank Sinatra. Dinah Shore, Kate Smith and Perry Como also led the hit parade. Be-Bop and Rhythm and Blues, grew out of the big band era toward the end of the decade. Although these were distinctly black sounds, epitomized by Charlie Parker, Dizzie Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Billy Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Woody Herman.Radio was the lifeline for Americans in the 1940's, providing news, music and entertainment, much like television today. Programming included soap operas, quiz shows, children's hours, mystery stories, fine drama, and sports. Kate Smith and Arthur Godfrey were popular radio hosts. The government relied heavily on radio for propaganda. Like the movies, radio faded in popularity as television became prominent. Many of the most popular radio shows continued on in television, including Red Skelton, Abbott and Costello, Jack Benny, Bob Hope, and Truth or Consequences.WEB SITESAmerican Popular Music 1900-1950 A look at the music and the times. Lyrics Database 61,000 song lyrics. Search by keyword. Music in the Public Domain Includes song lists - with links to some lyrics. History of Radio Arranged chronologically. BOOKSREF ML200.H15 A Chronicle of American Music 1700-1995Arranged by year, historical highlights, world cultural highlights, American art and literature, music - commercial and cultural. REF ML197.S634 Music Since 1900Arranged by day, includes important premiers and musical events.REF ML128.S37L4 The Great American Song ThesaurusArranged by year, summary of world and musical events, list of important songs.REF ML390.S983 Show Tunes 1905-1985Features important composers. Lists their shows and the published music for each show.BOOKS & LITERATUREThe decade opened with the appearance of the first inexpensive paperback. Book clubs proliferated, and book sales went from one million to over twelve million volumes a year. Many important literary works were conceived during, or based on, this time period, but published later. Thus, it took a while for the horror of war and the atrocities of prejudice to come forth. Shirley Jackson wrote The Lottery to demonstrate how perfectly normal, otherwise nice people, could allow something like the Holocaust. In The Human Comedy, William Saroyan tackles questions of prejudice against the setting of World War II. Richard Wright completed Native Son in 1940 and Black Boy in 1945, earning acclaim, but government persecution over his communist affiliation sent him to Paris in 1945. Nonfiction writing proliferated, giving first-hand accounts of the war. The first edition of Dr. Benjamin Spock's Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care is considered by some to have changed child rearing.Books That Define the TimeNorman Mailer's The Naked and the DeadIrving Shaw's Young LionsJohn Hershey's A Bell for AdanoWilliam Saroyan's The Human ComedyRichard Wright's Black BoyDr. Spock's Common Sense Book of Baby and Child CareBooks About BooksREF PN50 .L574 Literature and its TimesExamines literature in light of the events and prejudices of the day. Vol. 4 covers works about, but not necessarily written during, the forties.REF PS21 M34 Magills Survery of American LiteratureGives author background and a synopsis of significant works, including those listed as "defining the time."REF PS221 .T835 Twentieth Century American Literature An 8 volume set with long essays and criticism of twentieth century works.REF Z1219.C96 1905 (annual) Book Review Digest Indexes and abstracts book reviews. Use it to find books written during the period and their reviews PS350 .A53 American Playwrights since 1945Gives an overview of each playwright's life and works, including criticism.REF PS92 .R67 A Chronological Outline of American LiteratureLists major works by date. Use this list as an index to Twentieth Century and Magill's Survey to locate works written during this decade.Children's Book Award winners of the forties:Newbery Award Winners - Began in 1922 (award for the most distinguished child's book of the previous year) 1940: Daniel Boone by James Daugherty1941: Call It Courage by Armstrong Sperry 1942: The Matchlock Gun by Walter Edmonds1943: Adam of the Road by Elizabeth Janet Gray1944: Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes1945: Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson1946: Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski1947: Miss Hickory by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey 1948: The Twenty-One Balloons by William Pène du Bois 1949: King of the Wind by Marguerite Henry Caldecott Award Winners - Began in 1938 (award for the most distinguished child's picture book of the previous year) 1940: Abraham Lincoln by Ingri & Edgar Parin d'Aulaire1941: They Were Strong and Good, by Robert Lawson1942: Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey1943: The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton 1944: Many Moons, illustrated by Louis Slobodkin; text: James Thurber 1945: Prayer for a Child, illustrated by Elizabeth Orton Jones; text: Rachel Field 1946: The Rooster Crows by Maude & Miska Petersham 1947: The Little Island, illustrated by Leonard Weisgard; text: Golden MacDonald, pseud. [Margaret Wise Brown] 1948: White Snow, Bright Snow, illustrated by Roger Duvoisin; text: Alvin Tresselt1949: The Big Snow by Berta & Elmer HaderFADSIn popular dancing, the Jitterbug made its appearance at the beginning of the decade. It was the first dance in two centuries that allowed individual expression. GI's took the dance overseas when they to war, dancing with local girls, barmaids, or even each other if necessary. Rosie the Riveter was the symbol of the working woman, as the men went off to war and the women were needed to work in the factories. GIs, however, preferred another symbol, the pin-up girl, such as Rita Hayworth or Betty Grable. Pictures were mounted on lockers and inside helmets to remind the men what they were fighting for. Wherever American soldiers went, even the first to arrive would find a picture of eyes and a nose, with the message, Kilroy was Here. After they returned, Kilroy began to mark his place on the walls and rocks of public places. More than one pregnant woman came into the delivery room with "Kilroy was here" painted on her belly.Working mothers, combined with another new phenomenon, the refrigerator, led to the invention of frozen dinners. With the advent of television later in the decade, they became known as TV Dinners. Tupperware and aluminum foil eased the postwar housewives' burden, and diners, originally horse drawn carriages with a couple of barstools, became a stationary, respectable staple of the postwar culture. The Slinky was invented by a ship inspector in 1945. Teenagers became a recognized force in the forties. With the men off to war, teenagers - boys and girls - found employment readily available, and so had money to spend. Seventeen magazine was established in 1944. Advertisement began to be aimed at teens. With fathers away and mothers at work, another new phenomenon arose - the juvenile delinquent.BOOKSREF E169.1.P19 Panati's Parade of Fads, Follies and Manias Arranged by decade, includes fads, dance crazes, radio, TV, popular books and songs.E 69.1.R7755 Mass Culture: The Popular Arts in America Important essays analyzing mass culture in American history. E169.12 .A418 Dictionary of Twentieth Century Culture: American Culture After World War II A timeline gives highlights by year. Entries average half a page and are about personalities, trends and groups.FASHION The Zoot Suit was the height of fashion among daring young men until the War Production Department restricted the amount of fabric that could be used in men's garments. The same restrictions led to the popularity of the women's convertible suit, a jacket, short skirt, and blouse. The jacket could be shed for more formal attire at night. Silk stockings were unavailable, so, to give the illusion with stockings with their prominent seam, women would draw a line up the backs of their legs with an eyeliner. At work, as "Rosie the Riveter" took on a man's work, slacks became acceptable attire.When the war and it's restrictions ended, Christian Dior introduced the New Look, feminine dresses with long, full skirts, and tight waists. Comfortable, low-heeled shoes were forsaken for high heels. Hair was curled high on the head in front, and worn to the shoulders in the back, and make-up was socially acceptable. Glamorous Rita Hayworth made the sweater look popular. It took time to put the New Look together, time the women now had as the men returned to their jobs in the factories and offices.WEB SITESSolemates: Century in Shoes Shoe styles and other fashion trends of the 1940's. Includes film clips.Vintage Blues - History of Fashion 1940-1950The Costume Gallery - Women's Fashions 1940'sBOOKSGT615 .H86 The Way We Were: Styles of the 1930's and 1940'sClothing of the decade worn on screen by actress Marsha Hunt. Hairstyles and hats are also featured.GT605.W5 GT605.W5 Five Centuries of American CostumeChapter 9 discusses the dress of men and women from 1940-1949. Illustrations included.GT605.H35 Common Threads: A Parade of American ClothingIncludes an overview of the 20th century, then chapters on contributors to changes in fashion. It has photographs of people at work, in college, and at play.THEATER and FILM The theater, too, turned to abstractionism. Thornton Wilder's The Skin of our Teeth (1942) was bizarre and difficult to understand but won the Pulitzer Prize. Tennessee Williams wrote of self-disillusionment and futility in the Glass Menagerie (1945) and Streetcar named Desire (1947). In contrast Musical Theater was reborn, with Agnes de Mille's technique of dancing in character in Oklahoma (1943). Carousel (1945), and Annie get your Gun (1946). The forties were the heyday for movies. The Office of War declared movies an essential industry for morale and propaganda. Most plots had a fairly narrow and predictable set of morals, and if Germans or Japanese were included, they were one-dimensional villains. Examples are Casablanca, Mrs. Miniver, Lifeboat, Notorious, Best Years of our Lives, Wake Island, Battle of Midway, Guadalcanal Diary, and Destination Tokyo. Citizen Kane, not fitting the template, was one of the masterpieces of the time. Leading actors were Gary Cooper, Humphrey Bogart, Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Bette Davis, Marlene Dietrich, Joan Crawford, Judy Garland, Ginger Rogers, Jimmy Stewart, Marlon Brando, Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Lana Turner. Walt Disney's career began to take off, with animated cartoons such as Fantasia (1940), Dumbo (1941), and Bambi (1942). During the war years, the studio produced cartoons for the government, such as Donald gets Drafted (1942), Out of the Frying Pan into the Firing Line (1942) and Der Fuehrer's Face (1943).The Emergency Committee of the Entertainment Industry, composed of both black and white actors, fought for better roles for blacks. Lena Horne, Hattie McDaniel, and Cab Calloway, among others, made small inroads. The boom years of movies faded with the advent of television in 1948.TELEVISIONAt the end of the war, only 5,000 television sets, with five inch black & white screens, were in American homes. By 1951, 17 million had been sold. The Original Amateur Hour, a revival of a popular radio show, was the first top-rated show in 1948 . Milton Berle's slapstick comedy, Texaco Star Theater, was credited with creating the demand for televisions. Its greatest rival was Ed Sullivan's Toast of the Town.Kukla, Fran & Ollie kicked off children's television as Junior Jamboree in 1947, followed by the Howdy Doody Show. The sitcom made its appearance in January, 1949, with The Goldbergs.WEB SITESBroadway 101 - History of theater on Broadway, by decadeE-Online movies and starsStarbuzz: Guide to Stars OnlineTelevision History - The First 75 YearsMovie Timeline - Search for "current events" in the movies by dateBOOKSREF PN2189.L85 Twentieth Century Theatre A theater buff's bible. This book lists and describes by year premiers, productions, revivals, events, births/death/debuts in both America and Great Britain.REF PN1992.18 .M874 Encyclopedia of TelevisionPhotographs and information about the stars and the shows.REF ML390.S983 Show Tunes: 1905-1985Limited because it only covers only Richard Rodgers and Irving Berlin from this era. Worth a look for these two - because it lists plays, performances, theater information, and published songs.SPORTSWorld War II had its effect on sports as all able-bodied men between 18 and 26 were expected to serve in the military. Rubber went to the war effort; consequently, balls were soggy and unresponsive. Wood was in short supply, leading to a shortage of baseball bats and bowling pins. Even so, professional sports were encouraged to continue, to improve the morale of the troops. President Roosevelt signed the Green Light letter, supporting baseball. Baseball games were considered so important to troop morale that the Japanese tried to jam radio broadcasts. By 1943, half the baseball players had enlisted. Teams used older veterans and even a one-armed outfielder, Pete Gray of the St. Louis Browns. In the All-American Girls Baseball League, players wore dresses and had to attend charm school. After the war, television and easier transportation changed the face of American sports. In 1947, Jackie Robinson became the first black professional baseball player - in fact, the first black professional athlete outside of boxing. Baseball players negotiated for a minimum salary of $5500 a year. By 1950, the top earning player, Stan Musial, was making $50,000. Postwar baseball names included Ted Williams, Ralph Kiner and Joe DiMaggio.Before 1941 when two-platoon football was allowed, all eleven players on a football team played the entire game. Only injury was an excuse for substitution. That changed in 1941, when free subs were allowed, enabling weakened college teams to continue playing. Because of travel restrictions, the 1942 Army Navy game was played in Annapolis, and half the midshipmen were assigned to cheer for West Point. Sixty years later, Bill Williams, a Navy midshipman, remembered that game. "We yelled the cheers and sang the songs but I don't remember being very energetic. Also when Navy scored, we forgot whose side we were supposed to be on. We won fourteen to nothing." The penalty flag, first used in 1941, became official in 1948. Elaborate playbooks were introduced by Paul Brown, turning football into a game of strategy. Some of the northern college football teams began to integrate blacks. Basketball was less affected by the war than other sports because a player's height often made him ineligible for military service. The Basketball Association of America formed in 1946, merged in 1949 with the National Basketball League to form the NBA. Joe Fulks of the Philadelphia Warriors had a record high score of 63 points in a game when most whole teams didn't score that high. The 1940's were the heyday of boxing. Boxing was big money, mainly because of gambling, and was ruled by gangland boxing czar Frankie Carbo. Joe Louis was the heavyweight champion from 1937 to 1948, in part because major boxing titles were frozen from 1941 to 1946 ad four thousand professional boxers joined the military. Louis not only enlisted, he donated over $100,000 to war relief efforts in 1942. Sugar Ray Robinson, Ike Williams and Willie Pep were other big names in boxing. The Indianapolis 500 was closed duirng the war and the racetrack deteriorated. In the first postwar race in 1946, twenty-four cars dropped out due to wrecks and mechanical difficulties. NASCAR, a stock car racing club that purportedly ran cars that you could buy from a dealer's showroom started the Grand Nationals in 1949. The Women's Professional Golf Association formed in 1946, and the Ladies Professional Golf Association in 1949. Babe Didriksen Zaharias and Patty Berg were the stars, with Byron Nelson the men's champion. Jack Kramer dominated men's tennis.WEB SITESOrganization of American Historians - Baseball and World War IIBOOKSREF GV861.12 .A2 P76 Professional Sports Team HistoriesFour volumes one each on baseball, football, basketball and hockey